Something In Your Smile
by Sapphire929
Summary: Alice, Rosalie, and Bella. Jasper, Emmett, and Edward. A story about how three amazing girls meet three perfect guys. Hilarity and love ensues. All human.
1. Shenanigans

**"Shenanigans"**

**Bella's POV**

I pulled the last pan of cookies out of the oven just in time, inhaling deeply the wonderful smell of freshly baked gingerbread. I realized that it was probably extremely eccentric of me to be baking Christmas cookies what with it only being the beginning of August, but I couldn't help myself. Renee had bought a cookbook entitled "500 Cookie Recipes" in a short-lived attempt at baking. According to the letter that was hastily stuffed between the first few pages, she had messed up the first recipe so badly that even their dog wouldn't go near the basic chocolate chip batch. She'd mailed it to me after deciding that maybe baking wasn't going to be a time-consuming hobby in her near future.

The familiar smell of the spices calmed my nerves and helped me to shake off the horrible monday I had had at the company. Nothing specifically bad had happened, so to speak. I had just had a difficult time concentrating on my work and, as a result, had gotten very little done. As we were on a deadline to finish editting a certain number of pages each week, this only made my workload larger for the next four days. Sighing as I transferred the cookies to a light green platter, I tried to be optimistic about doing my work at home tomorrow.

Since I was a lower-level editor for the firm, I still had to log a certain number of office days per week depending on our workload. Thankfully, though, I had proven myself to be enough of a self-motivator to my boss that he had only insisted that I come into the office twice a week. The rest of the workweek, I could take my work anywhere I wanted. This meant that the book I was currently editing could come with me to the park, to a coffee shop, or to the public library. Probably, though, given that tomorrow was supposed to bring a thunderstorm that shouldn't let up until evening, I would spend the majority of my time cuddled up in the armchair in the living room with a blanket and an endless supply of coffee and gingerbread cookies.

"Hello, ALL!" Alice yelled, bursting through the door with enough energy for an entire cheerleading squad. She hung her keys up and bounced into the kitchen. "Why does it smell like Christmas in here?" She grabbed a cookie off of the platter before I could answer and ran back up the stairs to her room.

All I could do was stand there, shaking my head. I had no idea how she managed to go an entire workday, on a _Monday_ especially, and still come home like that. She was banging around in her room for a minute or two before she skipped back into the main room. "You never anwered my question, Bella. And the cookies are really good."

"Renee tried her hand at cooking and it didn't go over so well so she sent me the cookbook," I grinned, grabbing a couple more cookies and joining her on the couch. Before I could even get settled, though, she had shot up like a bullet and was off again.

"AAA-Lice! How am I supposed to relax when you're doing that? Come sit!" I yelled up at her, exasperated.

"I'll be out in a minute! I just remembered something!"

Distant rustlings sounded from her room and I suddenly felt a weight in the pit of my stomach. I had lived with Alice and Rosalie for five years (since sophomore year of college) and, if there is one thing I've learned in that time, it is the distant sound of a shopping bag being opened. My mouth went dry and I scanned the room to see what could be done about the situation. I saw all of the cookie ingredients lined up on the counter. Maybe if I was covered in flour she wouldn't make me try clothes on? She wouldn't want to get the new shirt or dress or torture device dirty...

Then I realized something marvelous. I looked down, seeing that I kind of _was_ already covered in flour. I'd have to take a shower and that could take a really long time if I wanted it to. Jumping up with as much energy as my roommate just had, I darted past her room and into mine, slamming the door behind me and locking it. I breathed a sigh, feeling safe with a securely shut door between me and-

"Be-lla!" Alice sang, her voice floating out of her room. I swear that she could be in a horror movie with that sing-song voice. I can just picture myself screaming and sprinting down some dark passageway with Alice twirling along behind me, singing my name and holding a shopping bag.

"Uh... I'm getting in the shower!" I yelled back. "Covered in cookie dough and stuff..." I quickly stripped down to my underwear and flung my clothes across the room. If I was in a towel, she couldn't very well ask me to get back into dirty stuff in order to try on whatever it was she had.

She was knocking on the door and it startled me so badly that I jumped and knocked half the stuff on top of my desk to the floor. "Crap!" I yelled, diving for the silver picture frame that I had gotten for my last birthday. In it was a picture of Rosalie, Alice, and me all piled on a couch and laughing. Alice's mother had taken it when we all went to visit her family for Christmas two years ago and it was my favorite photo of the three of us.

I managed to save the picture frame at the expense of a badly bruised elbow, which had just slammed into the wall. I moaned out and clutched my elbow. The door was flung open by Alice at this moment and she stepped triumphantly into the room weilding a pink store bag and a bobby pin. "HA!" She yelled, looking around for me.

"How did you DO that?" I called from the floor, frustrated that locks no longer restrained the clearly unstoppable force that was Alice Brandon.

She turned and looked at me, her eyebrows raising as she took in the scene. I was lying on my back in nothing but my underwear in the middle of the pile of lotion bottles, jewelry, stationary, magazines, and papers that had not been as fortunately rescued as the silver picture frame. She started giggling as she clasped my hand and helped me up. "What the hell are you doing, Bella?"

I rolled my eyes. After all the time we have spent together and as clumsy as I am, she shouldn't have been surprised to barge into my room and find me on fire, let alone sprawled out on the floor. "I tripped. Is that so hard to believe?"

"I guess not. On the ground is as likely a spot for you as any other," She looked me up and down. "God, Bella, we need to get you some new underwear. Who wears plain cotton anymore?"

"I do," I said defensively. "When you're sitting at a desk all day editing, the last thing you want to have to worry about is Indian Underwear."

Alice cocked her head to the side. "What is Indian Underwear? Is that a brand name? Do they market in the United States?"

I blushed. "No. It's just something Renee used to say. Don't worry about it."

"Oh, no you don't," Alice pursued. "What is it? Maybe It'd be good for my store."

Alice had gotten the best possible start right out of college. As a Fashion Merchandising and Business Management double-major, she had been hoping to one day open her own boutique. In her second semester senior year, she had made a connection with an older woman who was looking to make an investment with the money she had received from a nasty divorce settlement. After Alice pitched the store idea, the woman fell in love with it. Two years later, they were both equal partners in a very chic little shop named _Royale_.

"Indian Underwear isn't a brand name, Alice. It's just a type of underwear," I said evasively. "And I'm absolutely positive that you have tons and tons of it in your shop."

"What _kind _is it?" She insisted.

"Don't worry about it," I said, retreating to the shower and shutting the bathroom door behind me. I turned on the water quickly, waiting for the barrage of questions from Alice who refused to leave anything alone. After a few minutes of waiting, I was surprised when she didn't knock down the door. I hadn't heard a peep out of her and I had walked away without answering her question. Since when did that happen?

I stepped into the shower, contemplating. Maybe she realized it made me uncomfortable and decided to just grow up and leave it alone? After all, we _were_ out of college. I relaxed as the hot water hit me, soothing the ache in my shoulders which had been tense all afternoon. Shampooing and conditioning my hair in peace, I smiled at the relaxing alone time, savoring the fact that I'd temporarily escaped the clutches of my crazy roommate. It was relieving to know that Alice seemed to have some sense of when to stop pestering me about stupid things that didn't really matt-

"AAARRRG!" I screamed, scrambling away from the jet of water that had suddenly turned ice cold. Slipping, I grabbed hold of the shower curtain and ripped the whole damn thing down in my attempt to steady myself. Throwing it to the ground, I shut the water off and stepped out, grabbing my robe.

"ALICE!" I yelled as loudly as possible. "YOU WAIT UNTIL I GET BACK DOWN THERE!" I slid into my blue silk robe that Rosalie had given me one Christmas, flipped my dripping hair up into a clip, and stomped down into the living room.

Alice was sitting on the couch with a bag of popcorn, watching reruns of Gilmore Girls. The washing machine and the dishwasher were both running and the kitchen taps were spitting out blazing hot water, judging from the steam that was rising from both sinks. "What the _hell_ are you doing?" I ground out.

She turned to look at me. "What's Indian Underwear?"

"_Seriously_?! You couldn't have waited until I got out of the shower to ask this question?" I fumed, going over to the sink and turning off the faucets.

She looked at me deadpan. "How long have we know each other?"

"Fine. You don't like to wait. But, you know what? Just for that, I'm not going to tell you until after I get dressed. HA!" I turned on my heel and stomped back up to my room, grateful that I had finished rinsing out my hair before the attack.

I opened the top drawer of my dresser and stopped dead in my tracks, staring at the bare wooden insides of the completely empty drawer. "ALICE!" I roared. "WHERE IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IS MY UNDERWEAR?!"

"BELLA!" She yelled back, mocking me. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IS INDIAN UNDERWEAR?"

I dashed back out to the living room, standing in between her and the television. "Give me back my underwear," I said through clenched teeth.

"Answer my question," she responded patiently, taking another handful of popcorn.

I shrugged my shoulders in defeat, knowing that I'd be going commando until I told her. "Fine." I blushed. "You know how um... indians are really good at creeping up on you?"

Alice frowned. "Yes," she said warily, not entirely sure where I was going with this.

"Well... Indian underwear kinda does the same thing," I said, watching the confused look on her face. "You know... it creeps _up_ on you," I finished lamely.

Alice took one more split second, registering what I just said before she burst into laughter. The popcorn bowl was forgotten on the coffee table as she gasped for air. "In- Indian ... Creeping... there's creeping!" She spat out, laughing too hard to form a coherent sentence.

"Where's my underwear?" I yelled over her, frustrated.

She laughed out something I could barely decipher but I headed to her room, having heard the word 'hatbox' and the word 'bed' between all of the wheezing.

**Edward's POV**

"That's the last of it," Emmett called, dropping the final box to the ground right next to the dozens of others that we had just unloaded from the moving van.

I looked around at the moving carnage, trying to figure out where to start first. Maybe if we divided all of the boxes up based on what room they were supposed to go in? Then at least we wouldn't have all of them in the living room, making it impossible to move more than a few steps inside the door before having to weave through the labryinth of things that we either wanted or that our parents had insisted we needed.

Glancing from box to box, I realized with frustration that only about five of them- out of probably fifty- were actually labelled. "How are we going to be able to tell the difference from one to the next?" I asked, looking pointedly from Jasper to Emmett and back again. "None of them are labelled."

"That's easy, dude," said Emmett slowly. "You open each one up and look to see what's inside."

"Thanks, jackass," I spat. "Since you seem to have a game plan down, why don't you open all of these up and figure out what's in them while Jasper and I go return the moving van before we have to pay for it for another day."

Jasper laughed, grabbing his car keys off of the counter and following me out the door, leaving Emmett looking annoyed. I rolled my eyes at that. He deserved it. Plus the fact, it wasn't exactly like I'd left him to take care of a quantum physics problem. He'd be opening boxes. A monkey could do that.

"Do you want to follow me?" I asked Jasper, climbing into the huge U-haul van.

"I just hope I can keep up with you, Speed Racer," Jasper snickered.

I made a face. "I don't think it's going to be an issue in this monstrosity." I stuck the key in the ignition and revved the engine, which immediately started whining. Chugging slowly down the street, I could almost hear Jasper laughing at me. I was just approaching the turn-off to the main road when a red BMW zoomed in front of me, cutting me off in an attempt to make it back into the neighborhood. Slamming on my brakes, I punched the horn, cursing at the idiot driver who clearly couldn't see that my van was the more dangerous of the two vehicles. Muttering about Napoleon Complexes, I headed off in the direction of the truck rental.

Gratefully climbing out of the van and handing over the keys to the guy behind the counter, I quickly settled the bill and jogged back out to Jasper's waiting car in a supremely bad mood. Why the hell hadn't someone invented a better way to get large quantities of things from one place to another for minimum expense? It was absolutely ridiculous that perfectly respectable people should be subjected to driving such a humiliating pile of junk across town.

Jasper had a smirk on his face as I buckled my seat belt. I shot him a warning look. "Just drive the car, man. I don't ever want to have to think about that stupid truck again." He chuckled but did as I asked and sped out of the parking lot quickly, for which I was grateful.

"So how do you want to get everything unpacked once we know what's in all of the boxes?" Jasper asked practically, trying to distract me.

I sighed. "It'd probably be easier to get the essentials unpacked first. We're going to need all the kitchen things out so that we can eat. And we're going to need to get out all of our sheets and stuff unless we want to sleep without them."

Jasper nodded. "Makes sense. Do you want to divide the boxes up so that we don't have an army of them to climb over?"

"I was thinking the same thing," I agreed.

Jasper, Emmett, and I had finally gotten all of our stuff together and all of the moving arangements taken care of. It had been a long time coming, since we all wanted to make sure that we each had a steady job lined up before moving to Seattle, but everything finally fell into place by the beginning of July. The last thing we needed and which we straightened out with relatively little pain was our living situation. Jasper's uncle lived about an hour outside of town and had managed to find us an incredibly affordable little house which was just close enough to the interstate to make the commute into the city reasonable.

The ride back was much better since we were going faster than twenty-five miles an hour and Jasper had good music. We pulled into the driveway shortly thereafter and made our way up to the front door. Emmett cussing loudly sounded through and we grinned at one another, prepared to see him standing in the middle of the whole mess in complete frustration.

Strolling in casually, I was about to make a wisecrack at his predicament when I stopped short. Jasper practically ran into me. "Hey, man, what are you-" His voice cut off as he took in the scene in front of us.

A solid wall of boxes was erected neatly from the floor to about a foot from the ceiling, sectioning off the entire back half of the living room. A small opening at one end, clearly intended to be the entrance, allowed access to the other side of the fort. Coming from the far side of the wall was the sound of Emmett yelling at the top of his lungs. "WHAT the HELL is your problem!" He screamed. "I didn't want you to- NO! Go OVER! OVER! DAMN IT!"

Jasper and I scrambled through the opening to see who he was yelling at. Emmett was in the far corner of the room with his back to us. He was sitting on the floor staring up at the huge flat-screen TV that we had bought together our senior year of college. Displayed on the screen was the final scores of a very badly played round of Call of Duty on the X Box. We watched as Emmett flung the controller down in disgust.

"E-HEM!" Jasper said, causing Emmett to practically jump out of his skin.

"God, Jasper. Scare me to death, why don't you?" He grinned. "Wanna play me?"

"Weren't you supposed to be doing something productive?" I asked scathingly.

He shrugged with a huge smile plastered on his face. "Beating your high scores seems pretty productive to me."

"Judging from the scores of your last game I'd say you have a long way to go," Jasper observed, watching Emmett scowl.

The doorbell sounded out, however, and our idiot roommate was immediately cheered up. "PIZZA!" he yelled happily, sprinting past us and sliding out the small passageway with more agility than I could have imagined possible for someone as big as he is.

We heard the door open and followed quickly, watching as Emmett politely took the three large pizzas and paid the delivery guy. After he shut the door, he turned around. "Getting food is pretty productive," he shot over his shoulder, carrying dinner around and into the kitchen. "I got one for each of us."


	2. Music From Another Room

**"Music From Another Room"**

**Bella's POV**

"Hey, you two," Rosalie ground out angrily, storming into the house and kicking off her heels.

Alice and I looked at one another. "Are we in trouble?" Alice asked.

Rosalie shrugged. "No, you're fine. But some idiot driver just about hit me a second ago and then laid on their horn like it was _my_ fault. God, moving people are complete idiots." She stomped off, grumbling, as she went to change clothes.

"How was work?" I called, setting down my coke and muting Gilmore Girls.

"Hey!" Alice whined, her eyes still on the screen.

"Chill, Alice," I laughed. "Blonde guy's gonna kiss Rory and then she freaks out. You've seen this episode like five million times."

"Not the point," Alice mumbled, crossing her arms and waiting for Rose to answer my question.

"Pretty good," she yelled back at us. "The shoot didn't take as long as I thought it would and they finally fired that makeup artist that botched the last show. The new girl is really nice and actually _listened_ to me when I told her that orange eye shadow looks horrible on me."

Alice visibly shuddered. "Why on earth would they put orange eye shadow on you? You're a model, not a cartoon character."

"Go figure..." Rosalie answered just as she came out in a pair of tight-fitting yoga pants and a tank top. "Did we decide what we're doing for dinner?" She asked, wandering into the kitchen.

"We thought we'd just order a pizza or chinese food or something," I said absently, looking through our movies for one that we might all want to watch.

"Wait a second," Rose stood, arms akimbo, in the front of the kitchen. "You're telling me that you spent God knows how long baking enough cookies to bring down Santa's Sleigh but it didn't occur to you to just whip up something easy that we could eat for dinner?"

I stopped and thought about it for a second. "That sounds about right," I said before going back to my movie selection process.

"Chinese food it is," Rosalie sighed as she hunted around in one of our drawers for the take-out menus. "Do we all want the usual, ladies?" She asked.

**Edward's POV**

Three hours later, we had just about sorted through all of the boxes, putting each one in the room where it belonged. Of course, we first had to break it to Emmett that his fort was going to have to come down. Since it was a supremely excellent one and since we might as well have told him he was going to have to choose between food and sex for the rest of his life, we promised him that he could have all of the empty boxes in order to re-construct the wall. He spent the next phase of the unpacking process sprinting back and forth between Jasper and me trying to prevent us from unnecessarily damaging the boxes as we opened them.

Sitting, completely exhausted, on the couch that was floating in the middle of the room since we hadn't bothered trying to figure out where to put it yet, we opened our third round of beers. Jasper had volunteered to go to the nearest grocery store for some essentials so we didn't have to survive on take-out food until we straightened out our current decorating predicament.

"Well, gents," Emmett said, stretching and eyeing the X Box. "I say we throw in the towel for the night and work on our high scores for Call of Duty."

"I've got to get some stuff straightened out for work next week but then I'm game," I said, getting up slowly and popping my back.

The recording studio where I had been hired, originally based in Los Angeles, saw a need for an extra branch and the winning city had been Seattle. I was brought on to handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff and was also the resident pianist. Since alot of our recording artists required accompaniment, we were expected to be able to provide it. That was where I came in. Already I had received six different scores that were to be played and recorded next week for a singer who was working on getting a new album out by the first of the year.

"You aren't going to go play right now, are you?" Emmett asked, looking at me in exasperation.

"Of course not," I answered. "Just lining stuff up and looking over some sheet music to figure out which needs the most attention. I _will_ be playing tomorrow though so you pansies better be ready to enjoy some instrumental music to go along with unpacking the rest of your stuff." Emmett groaned but didn't say anything else as I left the room.

**Bella's POV**

"Good morning!" Alice sang happily when I stumbled down the stairs in my pajamas, which consisted of nothing more than a t-shirt and underwear. Having lived around these girls for so long, it would have hardly fazed them if I had come down completely naked and done a dance...

"Hurmphmnnn," I mumbled, reaching for the mug of coffee that Rosalie was holding out to me with an absent expression on her face as she took a bite of her toast.

"So are you staying in today?" Alice asked me, knowing full well that I had absolutely no intention of going into the office two days in a row if I could help it.

I nodded vaguely at her, focussing on my coffee and trying to clear the fuzziness of sleep from my thinking. If I concentrated and got thirty pages done today, I should be in pretty good shape for the rest of the week.

Alice and Rosalie ran around getting ready for work and, after listening to their heels click rapidly out the front door and hearing a final shout of goodbye, they were gone. I sighed contentedly and washed my breakfast dishes before grabbing another cup of coffee and my work file, trying to figure out where, exactly, to settle down and be productive. I was still in my pajamas and had no intention of getting dressed, so that automatically ruled out anywhere public.

Since it was a nice day outside and the forecast didn't expect bad weather until afternoon, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and sit outside on our back porch. Throwing some shorts on and sweeping my hair up into a ponytail, I quickly situated myself in the most comfortable lounge chair we had and got to work.

God! Some people were just bad writers. That's really all there was to it. People use commas way too often, people forget to capitalize important things, people don't know where to divide their paragraphs... Why didn't everyone who was trying to break into the business of novel-writing take a basic grammar course? It should be required or something. Granted, I had been given a low-priority book to edit since I was on the bottom rung of the ladder at the company, but they could have at least given me something half-way decent! J.K. Freakin' Rowling herself wouldn't have sold a single book if she had written like this, no matter how good the stupid plot was.

I had been out on the porch for three or four hours by now and had gotten a huge chunk of my work done which immediately put me in a better mood, even if the author absolutely sucked at being an author. Having gone in intermittenly to get one thing or another, I had collected a large quantity of things that surrounded me on the lounge chair including a tube of sunscreen, a Diet Coke bottle, a beach towel, a plate of gingerbread cookies, a glass of ice water, a half-eaten apple, my computer, my cell phone, and a pad with various notes scribbled on it.

Glancing around, I sighed and began gathering up the trash and things that I didn't need anymore. As I did so, I became aware of the fact that there was piano music floating vaguely from an unknown source. Straightening, I listened to it for a while, appreciating the subtle melodies and simply enjoying it. It wasn't until the song abruptly stopped and started up again after a few moments that I realized that it was being played live and not on a radio. Scanning the general area to figure out the origins of the music, I eventually decided that it was coming from the house directly on the other side of our backyard fence. This was surprising since the old owners had moved out two months ago and we had figured it was still empty.

Leaving the back door open so that I could listen, I went back into the house and banged around in the kitchen for a while making some lunch. The constant stream of piano music drifting in was idyllic, almost like I was in some sort of a movie. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. It would be nice to have a musician living nearby because that meant that this wasn't going to be a one-time thing. I could just open my window any time I wanted and enjoy.

Eventually, to my disappointment, the rain set in and I was forced to vacate the porch and shut the door. Pouting slightly, I did the rest of my day's work in the living room, winding down with the final pages sometime around four o'clock at which point the rain was practically dumping buckets. The rest of the day was spent productively cleaning, cooking something simple for dinner, and generally re-organizing my life since it had gotten so screwed up in the last couple of weeks with random craziness at work.

"Bella?" I heard Rose's voice call from the living room.

Running out, I saw her shaking out her umbrella as she stepped into the house. "What's going on Rose?" I asked. "Who- ha ha ha!" I burst into laughter, seeing her hair and make-up. She had clearly been doing some sort of weird shoot today and her hair, plastered in hairspray, stood in every which direction while her make-up made her look like something out of a gothic porn movie.

She looked at me with tight lips. "I need help."

I doubled over in laughter. "I'll say!" I gasped for air. "Wh- What did they do- do to you?" I grated out between bursts of giggles, circling her and seeing that the back was every bit as crazy as the front.

She crossed her arms. "It was for a shoot with one of the urban clothing stores we're marketting. Are you going to help me or not?"

Composing myself with difficulty, I nodded without saying anything else, not trusting myself to keep the laughter at bay once my mouth opened. I followed her back to her bedroom, the only one of the three on the bottom floor. Keeping my eyes on the ground and off of her head, I wondered out loud. "What could I help you with Rose? I'm not exactly signing on to get in the shower with you, here."

She sighed, annoyed more at the situation than at my reaction. "I need to get all of the bobby pins out but I can't find a single one of them with all of this stupid hair spray."

"Gocha," I said matter-of-factly. "Sit down, then, and let's start hunting."

An hour later, Rose stepped gratefully into the shower, leaving a pile of forty-seven bobby pins sitting on her counter. I stepped out and wandered back into the living room, hungry but wanting to wait until everyone was present and not made up like an emo street walker. Glancing at the clock, it displayed quite clearly that Alice was almost forty-five minutes later than she normally was. Getting worried, I called her just to check. The phone barely rang once before she picked it up.

"Hey! Sorry I'm a bit behind. Work was crazy today," she said right off the bat. The sound of the car running in the background hummed through the phone.

"You're on your way, then?" I asked.

"Yep. I'm actually pulling into the driveway now," she said. Her headlights shone through the front curtains as she said this.

"Okay. See you in a second." I hung up the phone.

Alice skipped inside and immediately deposited her raincoat on one of the hooks before twirling around and throwing her thin arms around my neck, pulling me close. "Thanks for worrying about me," she said happily.

"Not a problem," I laughed. "Anything interesting at work or was it just a bunch of business crap that had to get taken care of?"

She sailed into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. "Um... well the reason I'm late is because we got a new shipment in this afternoon that I wanted to get on the shelves before closing. But, since you asked, something _very_ interesting happened this morning." Her eyes were sparkling.

I sat at one of the bar stools. "What?"

"Rosalie and I met _the_ cutest guy," she started, before cutting herself off. "Where _is_ Rosalie, anyway? I need her here so that I can actually tell the full story."

I smirked. "She's in the shower. The agency went completely crazy with her hair and make-up."

Alice glanced back down the hallway toward Rose's room in interest. "Are we talking minor like the collar necklaces shoot in 2006 or are we talking about a disaster like the denim vest shoot last fall?"

I thought for a moment. "We're talking a whole new scale of horrible, here, Alice. Vampire prostitute shoot of 2008."

Alice snorted. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

**Edward's POV**

Jasper and Emmett vacated the apartment for the morning to run errands, leaving me free to practice the new music without their constant interruptions. And, by "their," I mean "Emmett." This worked out perfectly since we had a ridiculous amount of things that we hadn't thought to pack in the process of moving. They would be productive and buy the eight million items on our list and I wouldn't bother them with my incessant music.

Settling down at the piano in my room, the one piece of furniture that was in its permanent place, I selected the hardest piece of music I would need to learn and began to play. With the open window in front of me allowing a refreshing breeze and a bottle of water next to me, there was no reason that I couldn't play straight through the morning and get as much done as possible before my roommates got home.

After a few hours, I got sick of playing the generic background music to what would ultimately end up being some one hit wonder pop song and tossed the sheet music aside. Placing my fingers delicately back on the keys, I began playing my own compositions, allowing the music to flow and echo throughout the room before escaping outside to be lost in the oblivion.

I glanced up and out the window to see a girl on the back porch of the house across the fence. She was standing there with her eyes closed, unmoving. She seemed average enough, with a heart-shaped, very pale face and dark brown hair. Her build was small. I normally wouldn't have picked her out of a crowd but, as I looked at her, I realized that there was something else about her that wasn't blatantly obvious. Something... different. Something more. It was almost as if there was an air of mystery that hung about her.

I stopped playing as I realized the train of thought my mind was pursuing. Shaking my head and trying to rid myself of the nonesense, I tore my eyes away from her and took a sip of water before picking back up where I'd left off. Sneaking one more peek at the girl on the other side of the fence, I saw her glancing around, looking for something. It wasn't until she turned in my direction that I understood that she had been standing there listening to me play. I ducked down out of her line of sight but didn't break the song as I continued, unexpectedly happy that she seemed to enjoy my music.

I'd played for people before and certainly at concerts and competitions when I was younger, but I'd never been so pleased that someone found pleasure in something I had created. How strange this was, since she was a complete stranger. It would make more sense for me to value the opinion of a well-respected teacher or that of my parent's. But, then again, maybe it _was_ the fact that I didn't know her. She didn't have a bias in my favor, but liked my music for what it was without knowing who had produced it.

I continued to watch her surreptitiously as she tripped back inside with an armload of things, leaving only a pile of papers and a computer sitting out on the lounge chair she had clearly just vacated. The back door was left open and she didn't immediately return back to whatever it was that she was working on. I wondered if she left the door open because of the breeze or because she wanted to listen to the piano music. Hoping it was the later but deciding to err on the side of modesty, I convinced myself she was simply enjoying the nice day outside and would have left the door open regardless of the music.

It started raining around two, which is what time I glanced at the clock and realized I had played right through lunch. Reluctantly pulling away from the black and white keys, I reached up and shut the window just in time to see the girl dash inside with her things, sliding the glass door shut as she went. I grinned unexpectedly without even entirely knowing why.

Slapping a peanut butter sandwich together, I was just looking through some of the notes I had made about the pieces I was expected to know for work when my roommates burst through the front door with their arms loaded down with shopping bags filled with hammers, extra wall screws, paint cans, and everything else we had decided last night to buy.

"I'm _not_ going, man," Jasper ground out angrily as he dropped his half of the bags on the couch, rounding on Emmett. "It was stupid of you to promise and I won't go along with it."

"What's going on?" I asked cautiously, wondering what Emmett could have possibly done this time.

"Seriously, Japser! I wouldn't be asking you unless it was super important!" He whined, also depositing his bags on the couch.

Jasper turned to me impatiently. "Asshole here set me up on a blind date without my permission!" I muffled a laugh into a cough, trying to keep a straight face. Jasper scowled.

Emmett stood with his arms crossed. "Come on, man. You'll really like her! She's hott and she's got alot more energy than that last girlfriend. What was her name? Joan?"

"Jane," Jasper said pointedly, miffed over the dig at his ex-girlfriend.

"Right," Emmett agreed. "Plain Jane. You know, I heard she's dating some tool who's studying to be a chef. Is that really who's beating you to the punch? A guy who makes _pastries_ for a living?"

"Fine!" Jasper snarled. "But you owe me _big_. We got it?"

Emmett looked like a little kid who had just been let loose in a candy factory. "Sure thing, man. Who knows? She might be the girl of your dreams. You'll be thanking me before this is all said and done."

"Don't push your luck," Jasper muttered, storming into the living room and turning on the television.

"So... Do you want to start from the beginning now?" I prompted Emmett, knowing Jasper was in too foul a mood to do the story any sort of justice.


	3. Lingerie Shopping

**"Lingerie Shopping"**

**Bella's POV**

Alice was happily chattering away, waiting for Rosalie to finish her shower and eating a gingerbread cookie while I listened and tried to get all of my work organized for tomorrow. Secretly, I was hoping that the piano playing would continue tomorrow but I didn't immediately voice these opinions out loud. Somehow it seemed silly and school-girlish to sit dreamily on my back porch and listen to the mysterious music from the unknown source. It seemed too... cinematic? Like I belonged in some enormous hoop skirt with Scarlet O'Hara gossiping in my ear while we listened. There'd also have to be iced tea and, to be perfectly honest, I didn't really like iced tea.

Rose strolled back out into the living room, clearly about to scavenge for some dinner before I stopped her. "I got a little something together earlier. Is lasagna okay?" I asked her.

Both of them raised their eyebrows. "Sounds fantastic. How long until it's ready?" Alice asked.

I grimaced. "Another forty-five minutes, probably. I only put it in the oven ten minutes ago."

The tiny brunette beamed. "That's fine. It'll give me plenty of time to tell you two my story and also field some...erm... questions that are bound to follow," she said cryptically. We stared at her silently, waiting for her to continue, which she eventually did after taking a deep breath. "So... Rosalie and I met a guy today," she began, glancing at Rose apprehensively.

She smiled despite the somewhat mysterious beginnings of the story. "He really _was_ good-looking, even if he was a complete idiot."

For Rosalie to admit this was something in and of itself. She never ever gave out that sort of compliment lightly. The last guy who had been 'good-looking' was one of the most sought-after male models in her agency. According to her standards, the acceptable dating material in the world based on physical appearance was a very small group of men indeed. Certainly she had been on hundreds of dates and had numerous boyfriends, but even some of those hadn't exactly measured up to her standard. She had gone out with them either as a favor to a friend or, in the more serious cases, in her attempt to prove to herself that she wasn't shallow.

It had taken a long time for us to convince our friend that she wasn't shallow for wanting the whole package. Wasn't that what every girl was after? Someone who had the looks _and_ the personality to go with it. Our winning arguement had been the numerous men she had dumped because they were boring or sexist. Neither of these qualities, we had pointed out, were based on looks or on material wealth. She just hadn't found the right guy yet.

Alice grinned at her. "So you admit that he was good-looking?"

The blonde shrugged. "Sure. I mean, I don't know the guy. But, based on his appearance, I wouldn't kick him out of bed." I snorted into my water glass. Leave it to Rosalie to put it in those terms.

"Good! Because you have a date with him on Saturday night!" She said happily.

"What?!" Rosalie asked, standing stock still, clearly assuming she'd misunderstood.

"You and I are going out with him and his roommate," Alice said clearly, completely calm under the growing wrath of Rosalie that would have sent lesser men (or women) running for the hills.

"Alice, why the HELL would you agree to something like that?! You know I don't do blind dates anymore!" Rosalie said through clenched teeth.

"It's not a blind date!" Alice insisted. "You've _seen_ the guy before. _And_ you just said he's good-looking, which is like the hottest guy ever in everyone else's books! If you want to get right down to it, _I'm_ the one who's going on a blind date. I won't even meet him until we get to the restaurant. You might walk away from this with the love of your life while I come home with one more horrible first date story to add to my list!"

"What exactly happened today?" I finally asked. "And what was Rose doing at the boutique?"

Rose sighed impatiently, still clearly upset with Alice but post-poning the rest of the arguement until I had been filled in. "I had two hours of down time this morning and stopped by the shop to pick up a few things for my mother's birthday next week."

I nodded, making a mental note to go buy a little something to slip in Rosalie's box for Ms. Karen. She was like a second mother to me, as was Alice's mom. "So you two went to lunch or something and met the guy there?"

Alice laughed. "Actually, he wandered into the store and started looking through the lingerie. I thought it was weird so I went over to ask him if he needed help with anything. Most of the time when guys are shopping for women's underwear alone they need a little guidance."

She said all of this very quickly but I managed to translate most of it. "Wait. You mean you asked out a guy who was shopping for women's underwear, Alice? Why on earth would he be shopping for that sort of stuff in the first place if he wasn't already off the market?" Surely Alice knew better than that? It wasn't exactly brain surgery to see that a guy was taken when he's shopping for girly products. This logic applied when seeing them buying lingerie, make-up, tampons, and usually even chocolate ice cream. You just don't mess with them since it isn't worth the time or the energy.

"I asked him," she answered simply.

"What do you mean you asked him?" I gasped, slightly mortified for her. "You just waltzed up to him and asked him whether or not he's got a girlfirend to buy underwear for?"

"Of course not!" She looked slightly offended. "I offered to help him if he needed any guidance and he _told_ me that he's single and really just wandered into the store."

"To look at women's underwear?" My voice dripped skepticism.

"Sure. Why not? He seemed to have pretty good taste, anyway. He was looking around in the French lace section that we just got in last week."

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "That's completely creepy, Alice, and I refuse to go out with him. I can't believe you set this up!"

"I didn't!" She insisted. "He asked me about you after you left, Rose. He was practically drooling."

The blonde looked slightly appeased but didn't back down. "That doesn't mean you should just offer me up to date, Alice. What if he's a complete psycho that has seventeen wives and lives in some kind of colony with all of them?"

I rolled my eyes. "If he's young enough to ask you out he's probably too young to have gotten married seventeen times. Maybe four or five, though."

"Thanks, Bella. You're a great help," she snarled.

I shrugged. "Alice is right, though. You already said yourself he was good-looking and I highly doubt he's a serial killer. She tends to have better taste than that. Why not just cut to the chase and agree to go? It'd save Alice a week's worth of whining and you a week's worth of headaches." I wasn't entirely sure why I was taking sides, here, but I hoped Alice would remember it in the future and spare me from having to try on anything especially embarrassing like a garter belt or something.

"_Fine!_" Rosalie snapped angrily. "But if he turns out to be a rapist or anything else crazy like that, Alice, I swear to God I'll cut every designer label out of your clothes and give your shoe collection to Good Will." With that, she stormed back to her room. "Let me know when dinner's ready," she threw over her shoulder.

**Edward's POV**

"You were underwear shopping, dude? Really?" I asked skeptically, not believing Emmett's side of things. "Like... you wandered into a women's clothing store and started going through all of the frilly crap in there?"

"Hey!" He said, sounding insulted. "It's only frilly crap until the girl actually has it on. Then it's God's gift to man kind. Don't insult the fine art that is a well-made thong!"

"I assure you that I appreciate a girl in lace just as much as the next guy, but that doesn't mean I enjoy shopping for the stuff personally," I replied scathingly.

"I wasn't _shopping_ for it. I was just...looking."

Yep. That sounded about right. Leave it to Emmett to meet girls like that. Every other guy on the planet met women by going to the gym, the park, a coffee shop, a bar, a friend's wedding, the grocery store. The list goes on and on. But, of course, Emmett can't go about things the usual way. He meets women when he shops for lingerie. You'd figure that that sort of behavior in a guy would repel them, since shopping for underwear is usually indicative of already having a girlfriend. I shook my head. Who knew?

"Where are you meeting them?" I wondered out loud.

"That new Greek place next to the grocery store?" He said. "It was her choice and I didn't really care where we went as long as the blonde one shows up. God, man! You should have seen her. She's like a frikin' model or something with those legs and that hair!"

I rolled my eyes. I'd never voice my opinion out loud, but she seemed like some cookie-cutter girl with a killer body and absolutely no brain. That's how they always were when Emmett got involved with them. And that's usually why he never stayed with them for too long. All they wanted to do was talk about their favorite tanning salons and which color tube top looked best with their eyes. Even Emmett could only take so much of that no matter how unbelievably gorgeous a girl was. My prediction for how long he'd stick this one out was somewhere in the ball park of four weeks.

"Oh, and sorry I didn't recruit another girl for you, man," Emmett cut into my thoughts. "I probably could have asked but since you weren't with us the thought really didn't cross my mind."

I shrugged, never planning to admit to him how grateful I was that he was going to leave my personal life alone and let me get my own dates. "I'll find a way to struggle through my dateless Saturday, I'm sure."

He felt instantly bad, not picking up on the sarcasm in my voice. "But, hey, we can still go out and celebrate Friday night!"

"Celebrate what?" Jasper called from the living room.

"Celebrate a successful move-in, for one thing," Emmett said, piling a plate with left-over pizza and heading in to join him.

"Um. I wouldn't exactly say it's successful until we've gotten everything unpacked," I stated.

"True. But let's try to get alot of it done this afternoon. I don't want this to take eight years," Emmett shot back, taking a huge bite of pizza and concentrating on the baseball game Jasper had turned on.

After we'd all eaten, we turned the television off and got down to business. Going from room to room, our first priority was getting everything out of the boxes which were, of course, immediately spiritted away by Emmett to be used at a later date. In theory, this was a good idea. The problem, however, came when everything was out of the boxes and on the floor, preventing any concept of fast organization. The coffee maker couldn't go on the counter because the movie collection was on the counter and the movie collection couldn't go on the shelves because all of the pillows for the couch and chairs were wedged on the shelves. The pillows couldn't go on the furniture because the shopping bags from Jasper's and Emmett's morning were on the furniture and the shopping bags couldn't be unloaded because there was no where to unload them. It was the largest vicious circle I had ever seen and it was beginning to make my head hurt.

Eventually, the kitchen and living room were both figured out and relatively organized, giving us the opportunity to collapse in front of the TV for a while. When it was all said and done, I was too tired to really even pay attention to the show that Jasper had randomly turned to. Closing my eyes and letting my thoughts wander, I allowed myself to relax for a little while. Quietly humming one of my compositions to myself, my mind inexplicably went to the girl I had seen out the window earlier today. I hadn't even really gotten a good look at her, but something about her stuck with me. From a distance, she had seemed like any other girl. Granted, the amazing ones probably didn't exactly carry around neon signs advertising how wonderful they were...

That was probably why I'd never actually come across anyone unforgettable. Of course I'd met some nice girls, some funny girls, some beautiful ones, some intelligent and some kind. But that was exactly the problem. My girlfriends and dates had either been nice _or _funny, beautiful _or_ intelligent. They never had everything I wanted; they only had a few things that I wanted. It's the most depressing thing ever to take a girl out, hoping that she's the real deal, only to figure out that she doesn't even know the difference between a piano and a keyboard.

I found myself wondering if the girl on the other side of the fence was any different. Somehow, I just couldn't see her being a brainless idiot. She'd had a huge stack of paper and was sitting out there reading. So far, I only knew that she seems to like piano music and she has the ability to read. I laughed to myself at this. Both of these were extremely positive things and more than I could say about some of the girls I'd met. There's no way that the Malibu Barbie that Emmett had gone out with over the summer had been able to read...

"...he's gonna ever wake up?"

"He better in the next couple of minutes. I'm not waiting here forever."

I heard quiet laughing and my eyes fluttered open. There, sitting on the floor in front of me like two school children waiting to hear a story, were my roommates. Both of them were looking at me with amusement and tight smiles as if they were trying not to burst into laughter. I frowned at that. Usually Jasper wasn't one to emulate Emmett.

"What's going on?" I asked warily, slightly groggy from having just woken up.

Both of them shrugged. "Nothing," Emmett said in a small voice, a huge grin on his face.

This wasn't good. What did you do?" I asked, checking my person. There was nothing on my clothes, on my hands, my face felt fine. What was I missing?

Jasper shook his head in mock disgust. "What makes you think we _did_ anything, man?"

"I know, right?" Emmett joined in. "The lack of trust that he has in us is just sad after all we've been through together."

I was still skeptical. "Then why are you sitting on the floor watching me?"

"We just wanted to watch your pretty pretty face while you slept," said Japser in a girly voice.

Rolling my eyes I pushed myself up from the couch, stretching my arms out in front of me in an attempt to loosen the muscles. "Okay, then. I'm going to bed." I shook my head and walked away from them, wondering if there was something in the Seattle water that had turned my friends into complete psychos. Strolling into my bathroom, I began to brush my teeth. That's when I finally looked up at my reflection in the mirror and froze.

Instead of seeing my green eyes and bronze hair like every other day, I was looking at some scary-looking version of Albert Einstein with a load of fuzzy white hair. Toothbrush still in my mouth, I silently reached up a hand and ran it through my hair. It came away from my scalp covered in down feathers and what appeared to be some kind of cooking oil.

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" I screamed suddenly, toothpaste going everywhere. I heard hysterical laughter float up to me from downstairs and, after washing my hand off and rinsing my mouth out, I stormed back down the steps. Feathers floated after me as I went which only pissed me off even more.

Rounding the corner into the living room, I was greeted by a blinding flash of light and then a grinning Emmett with a digital camera. "This one's for the kids!" He exclaimed gleefully, handing it to Jasper who examined it with tears of laughter streaming down his cheeks.

Completely exasperated and not having the slightest idea what to say I just started spluttering. "What made you... how did you... too old for this kind of crap..." My efforts to communicate were only met with more laughter and, not knowing what else to do, I threw my shoulder into Emmett's chest and knocked him to the floor.

Gasping for air, he didn't really have much of a chance at the offset. I pinned him to the ground with an angry growl, feathers drifting down into his face. He choked out even more laughter, not even slightly ruffled at having just been rugby-tackled to the carpet. I groaned as Jasper threw himself into the pile and, before I had time to catch another breath, we were in a full-out wrestling match as each of us tried to pin at least one of the others to the ground.

I had Jasper by the throat on his back and would have gotten him to give in if I hadn't felt Emmett grab me around the middle and literally fling me off. I had the wind knocked out of me when my back slammed into the wall and was gasping for air as I saw a blur of someone rushing straight for me. Using agility to my advantage, I side-stepped just in time to feel Emmett fly past me and crunch into the wall, plowing straight through the surface before finally hitting a wooden stud which stopped his momentum cold.

Jasper and I stood back motionless, gaping as Emmett yanked his shoulder out of the huge hole he'd just made next to the television. Brushing himself off as he stood back to appraise his handiwork, we watched a slow smile spread across his face.

"I think it's even bigger than the one from the dorm room sophomore year," he finally decided. Turning around with a smirk, he looked straight at me. "Dude, go wash your hair. You look like an idiot."


	4. Revenge is Sweet

**"Revenge is Sweet"**

**Edward's POV**

The next morning Jasper and Emmett shut themselves up in their rooms in an attempt to get everything somewhat organized before their respective jobs started. Jasper was teaching lower-level history classes at Seattle University, trying to work his way up in their staffing. I thought it was amusing that he wasn't even interested in climbing the teaching ladder for the sake of having more power within the history department. His only career goal at this point in his life was to get the opportunity to teach a history class based entirely on the American Civil War. Given that he was an exceptionally good professor (mostly because he was unusually enthusiastic about his job) for so young a person, I didn't doubt he would reach that goal sooner than he thought.

Emmett was taking up the post of head football coach and P.E. teacher at one of the local all-boys prep schools. When he got the job offer, Jasper and I had both laughed in his face since "all-boys" meant "no women" and that was a world in which Emmett could not survive long. We underestimated him, though, when he took the job without question, probably reasoning that he could meet women all over Seattle and not just at work. Since the previous coach wasn't moving out of the city until mid-September, Emmett would come on in a training capacity in order to learn the ropes before completely taking over the program.

Disregarding the fact that my roommates probably didn't appreciate classical piano before noon, I sat down at the bench with a firm resolve to work on one of my own compositions. For several months now, I had been playing around with a melody that I could never get exactly right. Something was still missing from it and, no matter how many different combinations of chords and key-changes that I tried, nothing worked. It was incredibly frustrating but I just couldn't stop playing.

The predicament almost reminded me of a really suspenseful book that was irritating only because I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what happened next. The reason I kept reading despite my annoyance was because I knew that, in the end, the final result would be worth all of the agonizing that it took to get there. In the same way, I knew that I would eventually reach a place where the composition would come together beautifully. When that point in time came, it would be that much more satisfying from having worried and bothered over it.

Looking up and out my open window, a small thrill went through me as I saw the girl on the other side of the fence, standing in the doorway of her porch, listening. My grin nearly stretched off of my face as I watched her slowly sway back and forth enjoying the music. Her brown hair waved on her shoulders gently and a small smile was on her full lips. Without thinking about it, my fingers flew over the keys in an as-yet untried pattern, weaving a melody in and out that I had never heard before. Yanking my hands away from the piano in shock and completely forgetting about my impromptu audience, I stared abruptly at the instrument. What had just happened? It was what I had been trying to come up with for so long that the complete spontaneity of success had startled me.

Carefully, slowly, I began to try and re-create what I had just played. For a moment it seemed as though I would be able to do it and, over-confident, I sped up. My fingers then tripped over each other and hit a false chord that made me wince. Exasperated, I focused on the notes and tried again with the same result. Frowning, I tried harder over and over, determinded to figure out what had made that first time so wonderfully right. None of my attempts worked. Grimacing in disgust an hour later, I shoved roughly away from the instrument and went downstairs aimlessly, hoping to find something with which to occupy myself for the remainder of the day.

**Bella's POV**

I woke up with unusual ease Wednesday morning, excited. One of the first things I did once Rose and Alice hurried off to work was to open our back door. The rain had washed itself out in the night, leaving everything completely soaked but clean-smelling. That in and of itself would have been enough to compel me to open the door since the smell of everything right after a good thunderstorm always made me smile.

Of course, the real reason I had opened the door was to find out if the musician was back for round two. Originally, only silence and the occasional dog barking could be heard and I was slightly diappointed. But, halfway through my first chapter of editing, the soft plinking of a piano wafted into the living room with the breeze almost as if it were a part of nature itself.

Grinning like a madwoman, I scrambled to the doorway to listen. There was something so soothing about the notes that allowed me to relax a little more and forget that I had alot of work to do today. I closed my eyes and retreated into myself, trying to ignore everything else and embrace the calm that was slowly stealing over me. The melody changed slightly and became almost unbearably sweet. With the note-change, a sudden feeling of melancholy grew within me as if the song were reminding me of something precious that I didn't have. The longing I felt for some unlived life grew and an unwarranted tear slipped down my cheek.

The music abruptly stopped without warning, startling me. Wiping the moisture from my face, I quickly ducked my head back inside, hoping that the person playing couldn't actually see me. The last thing I wanted was to make a complete fool of myself by standing in my backyard crying to piano music from an unknown source. A small bit of that sad feeling remained lodged deep within me and I took a deep breath. While today was the first time in a long time that I had felt anything remotely like this, I knew that it was indicative of the truth. I _was_ missing something...

KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" blasted out of my phone, completely interrupting the moment. Recognizing it as Alice's ringtone, I answered immediately. "What's going on?"

The general bustle of the boutique vibrated through the phone happily as my crazy friend answered. "Nothing, really. Which is why I need you to come in for a little while."

Trouble. Alice never ever asked me to come into the store to chat about my job or put on pajamas and watch a movie in the back room. "Uh... I really have alot of work to get done, here, Alice. Now's not the best time."

"Okay. But I'm picking out what you're wearing on Friday without your help, then." Her voice sounded triumphant as if she had planned the conversation to work out this way from the beginning.

"What are we doing Friday?" I tried to block out the mental image of myself in one of Alice's fashion creations which would inevitably make me the center of attention when that was the last place I wanted to be. Didn't she understand that clumsy people didn't belong on stage? They didn't even belong _back_stage. With all of the curtains and ropes and weights and stuff I'd probably end up strangling myself. No, my place was strictly in the audience.

"I'm not exactly sure what our plans are but since Rose and I are leaving you alone on Saturday, we thought we'd make Friday strictly a girl's night."

There was a tiny beam of light at the end of the tunnel. "If it's a girl's night that's planned for my benefit then can we just stay in and do a movie?"

"That'll be fine," she answered immendiately without even skipping a beat. "We just got in a shipment of the _cutest_ lace-trimmed pajamas. I'll pick you up a pair."

My mouth went dry. Nope. That tiny beam of light at the end of the tunnel had been a train. "Seriously, Alice? I'm not wearing ridiculous pajamas just to sit on the couch. It's not like anyone is going to see them."

"You never know, Bella," she said cryptically, completely skating over the fact that there had been a note of finality in my voice.

"What is that even supposed to mean? Are you planning on having an entire fraternity suddenly bust up in our house or something? Because that is the only reason I can come up with that would warrant the need for couture _pajamas_," I replied scathingly.

"Bella, take a little pride in yourself," she began impatiently. "The point isn't to dress nicely so that people can see you, necessarily, although it should be incentive enough to _at least_ put on some mascara. The point is that you're young and gorgeous and you should dress accordingly. Wait until you're ninety to pull out the flannel pants."

"Whatever," I grumbled. This arguement wasn't one I wanted to have over the phone and it wasn't one I was going to win regardless of where it took place.

She chuckled on the other end, sensing my surrender. "I'll see you later tonight then!"

**Edward's POV**

I couldn't keep the smirk off of my face as I pulled back into our driveway, having just returned from the store to get a few supplies. It had taken me an hour to get all of the crap out of my hair that my loving roommates had dumped into it last night. If they thought I was going to let them run over me, they were wrong. Retribution time was now and they were going to learn that I was a formidable opponent when I wanted to be.

They didn't get home from Blockbuster for another hour, at which point I was sitting casually on the couch flipping idly through the sports section of the newspaper. "Hey," I said, hardly glancing up.

"Are you ready for some quality television?" Emmett asked, throwing the rented copy of _Fight Club_ in my direction.

I grinned before putting it on top of the TV. "Fight Club rule number one?" I asked, dead serious.

"Don't talk about Fight Club," both my roommates stated in equally grave tones.

"Rule number two of Fight Club?" Jasper asked.

"_Don't_ talk about Fight Club," Emmett and I responded.

All three of us grinned at each other in anticipation before going back to what we were doing. We had an unwritten rule that we didn't start a movie like this one until everyone was settled with a full stomach. This wasn't the sort of cinematic experience that could be constantly paused while we got something to eat or made phone calls. This was a sacred movie that required our lives to be put on hold until further notice. Emmett actually took the rules so seriously that, during our junior year of college, he stopped going out with a girl who had fallen asleep in the middle of it.

"You two want to hear something weird?" I finally said, putting my plan into action.

They both looked at me, expectant. I continued slowly. "I was talking to my cousin a little earlier and she was bragging that she had beaten her boyfriend in a peanut butter eating contest."

Jasper stared for a moment. "That is possibly the strangest competition I've ever heard of."

"Um, I completely disagree with you," I said immediately. "What about that Japanese show with all of the people throwing themselves into brick walls or trying to swing over huge pools of cereal and stuff?"

We all laughed and Jasper agreed. "I'll give you that. But a peanut butter-eating sport is up there in the list of weird things."

Emmett looked thoughtful. "I wouldn't imagine it would be too difficult, actually. It's just peanut butter."

I shrugged like I didn't much care. "Apparently it's harder than it looks. Her boyfriend was only able to eat like a quarter of a jar or something." I went back to the paper, hoping at least one of them would take the bait. Emmett didn't disappoint me.

"What do you say, Jasper? I'll bet you ten bucks I can eat more peanut butter than you can in two minutes." I pressed my lips together from behind the sports section to keep from laughing. All three of us loved competition so this phase of the plan was almost too easy to engineer.

"Do we even have peanut butter?" Jasper asked skeptically.

I spoke up. "Actually I bought a couple of jars of it while I was out."

"Awesome!" Emmett exclaimed, opening random cabinets until he located the two jars. Yanking them down and grabbing two spoons, he tossed everything on the counter. "Ed, you have to time us!"

Jasper still looked hesitant over the whole situation but, before I could taunt him into it, Emmett stepped in. "If you can't afford to lose ten dollars, we can lower the bet to five, man."

Jasper scowled. "Make it fifteen." He stepped up and grabbed a spoon before unscrewing the lid of the container closest to him.

"Do you want to each get a glass of water or something to wash it down?" I asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

"Water's for little girls," Emmett replied with a completely straight face as he tried to stare down his peanut butter jar.

I pulled out my phone with a laugh and clicked through the menus until I got to the stopwatch feature. "Okay, you guys ready? Three... two... one... GO!"

For the first couple of spoonfuls both of them seemed to be fine. But once the fourth and fifth bites were shoved into their mouths, they encountered the problem. Had they thought it through, of course, they would have realized that the dilemma isn't how fast you can shovel it into your mouth. It's whether or not you can swallow it quickly. I started laughing as both of them opened and closed their mouths like goldfish, desperately trying to go faster than the other one but unable to make any progress.

"One minute left," I called after glancing down at my phone.

Both of them put two or three more spoonfuls into their already over-loaded mouths and desperately tried to choke it down. I laughed even harder as their faces became more and more contorted in their efforts. Both of them had their hands flat on the countertop in front of them, their spoons forgotten. At this point, it was pretty clear that whoever managed to get down the rest of the peanut butter that was already in his mouth was going to be the winner.

"Time!" I said, watching the timer hit two minutes even.

Jasper immediately opened his mouth, basically clear of peanut butter. "HA!" He shouted. "Pay up!"

Emmett scowled as he finally managed to swallow and stomped off without acknowledging that he'd lost. "I'm going to brush my teeth," he grumbled.

"Me, too," Jasper agreed.

I bit the side of my mouth and tried not to laugh, waiting a few minutes before going to grab the phone. "Hey guys! Do we want to order another couple of pizzas tonight?" My voice echoed. After hearing muted agreements from the two of them, I asked my next question. "What do we want to get?" I yelled.

"Give me the phone and I'll do it!" Emmett called, his voice muffled with toothpaste.

I looked up the number of the pizza place we had ordered from the other night and punched the number into the phone, hitting send as I walked back to Emmett's room. "Here you go man," I said to Emmett, who was just rinsing his mouth with a little water, a confused look on his face.

He took the phone and held it to his ear, waiting for someone to pick up. He ran his tongue over his teeth while waiting, clearly worried about something else. I did the best I could to keep a straight face as I watched. The faint voice of someone answering the call on the other end reached my ears.

Emmett cleared his throat. "Yeth ah wanneda oh-deh a pissa," he said clearly into the phone. I lost it. Roaring with laughter at the look of horror on Emmett's face, I stayed just long enough to enjoy his intense embarassment and then bolted out of the room before he could put two and two together.

I had barely reached the living room when I heard a roar like an angry bull and then the stomping of his footsteps coming up behind me. Gasping, I couldn't even run any farther. Emmett caught me easily and I slammed into the ground with him pinning me down.

"WHA DIDDA DOODAME!" he screamed. I choked on a laugh, literally thinking I was going to suffocate from the hilarity of the situation.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper rush into the room. "Thomtins won wid ma toodpade," he jumbled, staring at us like we were crazy.

"JAZPAH HE DID SOMPINA MEDOO!" Emmett yelled, throwing an elbow into my back.

I groaned but kept right on laughing, unable to even remotely control myself. My eyes blurred over from the tears and I didn't care what they did to me. If the two of them killed me right now, I wouldn't be able to find it in me to stop laughing.

"Idid pumanen?" Jasper panicked, too worried about the problem to even be angry at me right now.

Emmett jumped up, a look of terror on his face. "Ah can goh oud widda bwon guwl lidis!"

"Not-not permanent!" I gasped, clutching my side. Both of them stormed back into their rooms and I layed exactly where Emmett had thrown me, trying to get a grip on myself long enough to at least stand up.

After about half an hour, both of them reappeared. Emmett was still furious and Jasper was only slightly annoyed. "What the HELL was that?" The bigger of the two shouted at me. He had clearly regained his speech abilities.

I clenched my jaw, determined to keep a straight face. "Orajel," I said tightly. "It numbs your mouth."

"No shit," he spat. "What's your problem, man?"

My eyebrows shot up. "Do you not recall me spending an eternity in the shower last night trying to get all of the oil out of my hair?"

He looked slightly surprised and opened his mouth to say something before shutting it, thinking through last night's extracurricular activities. He took another look at my now slightly angry face. "Fine," he ground out. "But this isn't over." Picking up the phone again and hitting re-dial, he handed it to Jasper. "I'm never speaking to the pizza people again."

**AN: The next chapter should be up sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned- Edward and Bella wonderfulness!**


	5. A Moment Alone

**"A Moment Alone"**

**Bella's POV**

I tripped into the coffee shop by nine on Thursday morning with my work, determinded to get as much done as possible. That way, when I had to go into the office tomorrow, I would only have a very minimal amount to get done and, God willing, I would be able to leave by noon. My supervisor was usually pretty lenient with me since my work was always done on time and to the best of my abilities. For this reason, I was fairly confident in the fact that I wouldn't have to spend nine grueling hours sitting at my computer trying to appear busy.

It was a shame that I couldn't stick around the house and find out if the musician would make another appearance. But there were far too many distractions at the house to allow me to get through the forty or so pages that was my goal. At least in a coffee shop there was only so much I could do that didn't involve working. I could order coffee, go to the bathroom, people watch, maybe chat with the worker behind the counter? This made my choice an ideal work space.

Throwing my stuff down on a table in the corner, I weaved my way very carefully past all of the other patrons to the counter. Tripping over the very last chair leg, however, I crashed into the person at the back of the line who turned around and gave me a very nasty look. Mumbling an apology and concentrating on keeping the blush off of my cheeks, I stood there meekly in an attempt to prevent any further disturbances.

Finally getting to the front of the line, the worker waited expectantly. "Can I just get a medium coffee?" I asked in a small voice.

He looked at me like I was a complete idiot. "You mean a grande?"

"What?" I was completely confused for a moment before I remembered people and their snobbish coffee pretenses. "Oh. Yes." We both knew that 'medium' and 'grande' were synonymous. Why didn't he just let it slide and leave me the hell alone?

"Do you want room for cream?" Was his next question.

Cream? Why would I ruin a perfectly good cup of coffee? "No," I said slightly sarcastically, impatient that he was looking at me like I was committing some kind of horrible Starbucks travesty. He shoved the coffee at me and I paid for it, silently vowing to never come to this particular cafe ever again.

Taking the long way around to my table to prevent any more clumsiness now that I was holding a scalding hot drink, I kept my eyes on the floor until reaching my seat. There, setting the cup down carefully, I spread out my papers and tried to figure out where to begin. Noticing that the table was probably too small to spread everything out, I decided to put my notebook of scribbles and ideas on the table and the actual manuscript in my lap.

After ten or twelve pages, I was cruising along at a great pace. The caffeine from the coffee had taken effect and my concentration was as sharp as it had ever been. Each finished page was deposited in the folder on the chair next to me, covered in my suggestions and corrections. At this rate, I would definitely be able to leave work early tomorrow after logging a few notes in the main database.

I glanced up randomly while I took another sip of my coffee and met the unexpected stare of a complete stranger across the room. My throat went dry and my stomach twisted in nervous delight as I watched him watching me. He had bright green eyes- different than any I had ever seen- and messy bronze hair that still somehow looked like it could belong on a runway model for Calvin Klein or something. In the back of my mind, I was vaguely aware of the fact that I had always thought the men in the Clavin Klein advertisements were extremely attractive. This guy was very much like them with his refined good looks.

I panicked for a moment. Why was he staring at me? Had I done something strange? I thought back and couldn't identify any clumsy moment I'd had in the last hour. Maybe there was something on my face? My free hand immediately reached for my nose and then travelled to my hair to smooth it out just in case I had Johnny Depp hair from that movie where he had scissors for hands...

I watched the guy start to chuckle like he could tell what was running through my mind and I brought my hand down from my hair, blushing. I lowered my eyes from his, unable to hold his gaze any longer, and self-consciously tried to go back to work. My mind wouldn't focus, though, and I could still feel his stare on me because the back of my neck was tingling. I glanced up out of the corner of my eye, trying to be casual about it, only to see that flash of green again.

Nervously picking up my coffee to take a sip, I hid for a moment behind the rim of the cup, before dropping it back down on the table without paying attention. To the credit of my terrible bad luck, I had placed it partially on the notebook by accident and then proceeded to watch in horror as it tilted and then toppled over in front of me. The lid popped off of it and the dark liquid exploded in every direction before I could do another thing about it.

Shoving my chair away quickly in an attempt to prevent coffee stains from getting on the manuscript in my lap, I backed completely into the wall and knocked a painting off of it in the process. First wincing while it hit the floor with a loud bang, I then quickly looked down to see how much damage I'd done to public property. Thankfully, though, the painting was just one of those folk art deals that had been done on a piece of ply wood.

The disgruntled employee from earlier rushed over, dashing past all of the customers, every one of which was now staring at me. The look of complete anger on his face made my embarrassment that much more accute. "What the hell did you do?" He hissed at me, too low for anyone else to hear.

"N-nothing," I stuttered. "I just spilled my coffee."

"Right," he shot back at me in annoyance. "Just move tables so I can clean all of this up."

Hanging my head like a chastised little girl, I gathered up all of my papers and belongings as rapidly as possible and moved two tables away. Most of the people in the cafe had gone back to what they were doing, for which I was grateful. But, looking for the gorgeous guy with the green eyes, I saw that his table was now empty. My stomach dropped at that.

He had probably only stayed long enough to see me make a complete fool out of myself before getting up to go outside and laugh at my clumsiness. I shook my head and tried to re-organize myself, discarding the soaked-through pad of paper. I wasn't sure why it bothered me so badly that I'd run the complete stranger off, but it did. I clenched my jaw and tried to get a grip on myself. After all, it wasn't like I'd ever see him again, right?

Still... there was something about this particular guy that made the whole situation all the more embarrassing. I couldn't figure it out, though. Why should his opinion matter to me more than that of anyone else's? Why was it important to me that he thought well of me? What on earth could I possibly gain by knowing that a person I'd never met had admired me once in a coffe shop?

I sat staring past the papers in my lap, tapping my pen and completely lost in thought. I wasn't sure how long my mind wandered before I watched a hand slowly reach into my line of vision, carefully sliding a fresh cup of coffee onto the table in front of me.

Shocked, I glanced up and into the flawless face of the stranger with the green eyes. They were there, above me now, staring down at me with a glittering intensity that took my breath away. My heart practically stopped beating as my eyes greedily roamed the rest of his face, desperately trying to soak up every detail of it in case he disappeared or I suddenly woke up or something.

The smooth span of his forehead, the gentle arch of his eyebrows which were currently cocked in amusement, his straight nose, his perfect lips... I branded the image in my mind so that I could describe him later to my roommates... what were their names again? But, above all, I was acutely aware of those eyes. I found myself just wanting to dive into them and live there forever in the gentle warmth.

"No cream, right?" He finally asked.

His voice! The smoothness of it caught me off-guard and I couldn't even figure out what he'd just said to me because I'd been so caught up in the texture. I stared dumbly at him until, eventually, I realized he'd asked me a question. His eyes were dancing with mirth about something.

"Um. What?" I swallowed.

One corner of his mouth came up in a lop-sided smile. "You didn't want any cream in your coffee, did you?"

"No... I'm good." My hand closed around the fresh drink and I attempted a smile. "Thank you," I said softly, not sure how to act.

"You're very welcome," he responded smoothly. His face softened as he examined me. "Are you alright?"

I blushed a deep red, knowing he was referring to my incurable habit of humiliating myself. "I'm fine," I muttered. "That was just one in a very long list of mortifying public moments."

He chuckled and I was enchanted. I found myself longing to pluck up the courage to ask him to sit down with me and chat, but I couldn't do it. He was so... intimidating. It was like he was some perfect Michelangelo sculpture that had come to life. Why on Earth would he want to talk to me? He could have anybody he wanted. Sure, he'd bought me a cup of coffee. But he probably had decided to take pity on the poor, possibly mentally-ill girl with chronic clumsiness.

Before I could finish reasoning out the situation, he glanced down at his watch and made a face. "I actually have to be somewhere right about now but what's your name?"

I kept my gawking to a five-second interval this time before answering. "Bella."

The grin stretched off of his face. "How appropriate," he murmured. "I'm Edward."

My face heated at that and my breath hitched. He held his hand out and, unthinkingly, I put mine into it. At this point, I would have given him my hand and followed him through the very gates of hell. When my skin made contact with his, an electrical current seemed to shoot through me, raising goosebumps on my arms. My fingertips tingled as he slowly shook my hand. "Nice to meet you, Bella," he said softly. "I hope to see you again here sometime soon."

"Y-you, too," I stammered, unable to come up with anything more eloquent. He hesitated and seemed to turn away with misgiving before he strode out of the cafe, leaving me silently gaping. Had that just happened? I tried to shake myself back into reality but couldn't.

"Edward," I whispered to myself, testing out the name. A smile slowly took over my face. I liked it alot. It seemed right, somehow.

**Edward's POV**

I hadn't really had the opportunity to explore the town and get a feel for the city so I decided to take Thursday to do just that. It felt a little stupid to sight-see in the place I now called 'home' but it would be even more idiotic of me to live here for years and never know anything more than where I worked and which grocery store was closest to my house. Given that fact, there was no time like the present to take a walking tour of some of the up-scale areas.

Since my roommates couldn't join me until around ten-thirty I went ahead and took care of a couple of errands around town before ducking into a Starbucks to read the paper and wait for Jasper and Emmett. After ordering and sitting down, I decided I had about an hour and a half before I needed to leave. Settling back and relaxing, I immediately flipped to the 'World News' section first.

"Can I just get a medium coffee?" I wasn't sure why this girl's voice stood out from all of the other background sounds. Usually I could tune everything out and concentrate on a task at hand, but this particular voice- so soft that it was barely audible- broke through my focus.

I looked up to see a small girl standing with her back to me. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and her dark hair was up in a ponytail. She seemed utterly unextraordinary. Certainly she had a good figure, from what I could tell. But so did alot of women.

I watched her shift uncomfortably, her ponytail swishing from side to side, as the asshole behind the counter hastled her. For some unknown reason, I couldn't look away from her. I wanted to see her face. I frowned as the guy practically threw the coffee at her. What was his problem?

She turned slightly and began to walk back to her seat but she kept her head ducked, preventing me from getting a clear view of her. I craned my head as I followed her movements. She was walking slowly, holding her cup like it was some sort of touch-sensitive bomb. I smiled slightly at that and off-handedly thought it was cute that she was so careful with it.

Then, finally, she turned and sat down at her table, facing me. My breath caught in my throat and I was momentarily struck senseless as I looked at her. There was just something about her that took my breath away. She wasn't pretty like some generic, magazine-cover girl. She was beautiful in a one-of-a-kind sort of way. Her cheeks were smooth and pale and made me want to run my fingers along them. Her full lips were slightly pouted as she focused on her work. There was a small wrinkle of concentration between her dark eyebrows that I found endearing. And her wide eyes looked like they could hold the world.

I wasn't sure how long I had stared at her, my paper and coffee forgotten in front of me. It was as though, by looking at her, I could pull my life together when I hadn't even realized there was anything worng with it. I had the strange feeling that something missing had just fallen into place.

Frowning slightly at this line of reasoning which wasn't reasoning at all but silly fantasy, I tried to turn my gaze back to an article about the recent economic developments of Eastern Europe. My eyes stared past the article, however, and I became aware that I was trying to remember what she looked like.

I glanced back up and immediately relaxed, not even aware of the fact that I had been tense. There was something so comforting about the sight of her that I wished I could take her and keep her with me always. Surely even the hardest struggles in life wouldn't be so bad as long as I could just look at her.

I shook myself again. What was wrong with me? I didn't know this girl from Eve. She could be some sort of psycho woman that would end up completely ruining my life. I looked at her carefully, trying to find flaws so that I would remember that she was just some girl in a coffee shop that was no different from any other.

Maybe her eyes were a little too big for her face? But that only made them more enchanting, I realized. With the thick lashes they were absolutely mezmirizing. Alright... perhaps her jaw was a little too strong considering how delicate her other features were? But that was indicative of her personality, wasn't it? I could just picture her when she was angry, stubbornly setting her chin and frowning.

I smiled at the thought and decided to give up trying to find fault with her. All I did was qualify each feature, ultimately adding to her unique beauty. So, unable to look away for very long at a time, I resolved to simply enjoy the sight of her while it was in front of me.

I couldn't keep the smile off of my face as I watched her shift around in her chair every now and then, furiously writing on the pages in front of her. She'd sweep a few wayward strands of hair back behind her ear and I would find myself wishing that I could have done it for her. She'd tap her foot and I would wonder if she was worried about something or if that was just the caffeine from the coffee taking effect. She'd press her lips together and my heart would skip a beat.

Eventually she took a sip of her coffee and glanced around, her dark eyes falling on me. A thrill went through me as she finally met my gaze but, even though I was caught staring, I couldn't bring myself to look away from her. She looked like a deer in headlights as she observed me and it took everything I had not to go over to her.

A worried look suddenly flitted across her features and her slender hand went to her face and then her hair, no doubt wondering if I was staring at her because something was wrong. I laughed softly. Was it so hard for her to believe that I was looking at her because she was beautiful?

She lowered her hand after smoothing her hair and dropped her eyes. She tried to go back to work, the crease between her eyebrows deeper than ever. But after only a few minutes I saw her peek slyly up at me out of the corner of her eye. I knew I was being a total creep by refusing to look away but I just couldn't do it. She reached for her cup and took a quick sip before absentmindedly setting it back down.

For one brief moment, I saw it totter on the wooden surface of the little table before spilling over. I jumped up as I watched her scramble away from the growing pool of coffee that was seeping out from the cup. Her chair hit the corner of the painting behind her and I watched as the whole thing became dislodged from the wall and hit the floor with a crash.

Checking myself from sprinting over to her, I remembered that it would probably only make a bigger scene. She didn't seem like she was physically hurt in any way. Her beet-red face showcased her embarrassment but, other than that, I couldn't see that there was much wrong with her. The painting was fine and the work that had been in her lap, which had clearly been the more important of the papers, seemed to be unharmed. It _was_ a shame that she hadn't gotten to finish her coffee, though.

A sudden thought ocurred to me and I followed through with it without question. I glanced back at her every now and then as I waited in line at the counter, making sure that she was okay. The asshole employee was clearly pissed off at her but at least he didn't make her clean the table herself. She moved a few tables down and began re-organizing her belongings. I watched her look in the direction of where I had been sitting and I smiled. Was she looking for me?

As quickly as possible, I ordered her a new coffee and headed in her direction, my heart beating a little faster in anticipation. She looked a little sad as she stared absently at the work in her lap. Slowly, so as not to startle her, I slid the fresh drink onto the table in front of her.

She glanced up at me abruptly and I thought my heart would beat out of my chest. Seeing her from across a room and seeing her up-close were two different experiences. Before, I couldn't see clearly the wide warmth of her brown eyes. They were so gentle and kind that I wondered for a moment if she could even be real.

I searched for something to say, not wanting to look like a total stalker. "No cream, right?" Brilliant, Edward. Way to go with those opening lines.

It took her forever to answer my question. Had she even heard it? I needed a moment to understand that she was staring at me probably in much the same way that I was looking at her. I supressed a laugh at this thought.

"Um. What?" She finally asked.

A corner of my mouth lifted in a smile. It seemed we were both at a loss for words. "You didn't want any cream in your coffee, did you?"

"No...I'm good," she mumbled. Her small hand wrapped around the cup I'd just placed in front of her. "Thank you," she said so quietly that I almost didn't hear her.

"You're very welcome." She looked a little shaken, I thought. "Are you alright?" I asked. I didn't want to embarrass her but I had to make sure she was okay.

"I'm fine," she replied in a low voice, her cheeks flushing. "That was just one in a very long list of mortifying public moments."

I laughed out loud at that, grateful that she wasn't too humiliated about the situation. A dozen expressions flitted across her face in a very short time span before a frown finally settled in. I desperately wanted to ask her what she was thinking about but that would be prying and I didn't want to run her off. I glanced at my watch out of habit, disappointed to see that Jasper and Emmett were going to be waiting on me.

"I actually have to be somewhere right about now but what's your name?" I held my breath.

She looked at me for a moment before answering. "Bella."

I couldn't help grinning in satisfaction. It meant 'beautiful.' Of course that was her name. "How appropriate," I said softly. "I'm Edward."

I held out my hand to her and she placed hers in it without hesitation. I smiled at that simple gesture but stiffened as she did so, feeling heat flash through my body at her touch. Had she felt it, too?

I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Bella. I hope to see you again here sometime soon."

Why didn't I just ask her out? I crushed that thought immediately. She probably already had a boyfriend. Of course, that wouldn't stop me from coming back to this shop every day if that meant I got to see her again. I smiled at that.

"Y-you, too," she stuttered.

It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to tear my eyes away from her face but I managed it. I walked quickly out of the shop, knowing that if I turned to look at her again I'd never be able to leave.

"Bella," I said under my breath. "I _will_ see you again soon."


	6. Wine and Dine

**"Wine and Dine"**

**Bella's POV**

I pulled into the driveway after six on Friday night in a horrible mood. My supervisor had been upset with some of the other editors and, as a result, required everyone to stay until the bitter end of the work day. Even though I spent the entire afternoon playing games online and taking meaningless quizzes, I still couldn't find it in me to ask the boss to make an exception and release me. On the up-side, though, through the quizzes I _did_ learn that I'm not very preppy, my panty personality is bikini cut, and that my Christmas elf name is 'Tinker Floppy Feet.'

I stomped inside and was greeted by Alice dancing toward me with a full wine glass. She was grinning like mad at me as she shoved it into my hand.

"Start drinking now and you won't remember in a couple of hours," she said knowingly.

"How...how did you know?" I asked, flustered by her intuition.

She shrugged. "Just one of those things."

Rosalie strolled into the room. "Where's mine?" She demanded, seeing the drink in my hand. "No way is Bella drinking alone." She strutted to the counter and pulled out two more glasses, filling them generously.

I took a sip as I dropped my bag on the floor next to the door, not even remotely caring if the contents spontaneously combusted. I wasn't looking at my work again until Monday. "This is good," I commented on the wine, glancing at the bottle.

"The label name is 'Little Black Dress,' so I thought it was appropriate for a girls' night," Alice offered, flipping through the phone book absently.

"So what's our plan, exactly, for tonight?" Rose asked, fingering the beadwork at the neck of her tight, black tank top. She looked at me expectantly.

I thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not sure what you two had in mind for dinner but I'm starving. Can we eat first?" My stomach rumbled as if to back up my idea.

"On it," Alice announced. "I'll deal with this. You two figure out our next move."

I looked at the tall blonde and shrugged. "As long as the wine holds out, I'm game for just about anything."

"There's only one more bottle of wine, actually," Rose commented. "But then we'll just move on to the tequila, I guess?"

"There's margarita mix in the cabinet," Alice muttered, still ruffling around in the yellow pages.

"Excellent," I grinned. Alice after a couple of strong drinks in her was absolutely my favorite thing in the world. Last time, we'd been in a karaoke bar and she had gotten up on stage and performed a very spirited version of "YMCA" with three complete strangers.

"Hey, Bella?" Alice asked, knowing my train of thought. "I put your pajamas on your bed." I groaned but didn't argue. She was going to win, anyway. Plus the fact, since she was ordering dinner, she would effectively be in charge of whether I got food or not. And I was really hungry.

Shuffling upstairs to my room, I peered cautiously around for what was undoubtedly going to be a completely impractical ensemble for sitting around the house doing nothing. She didn't disappoint me. The tank top was a very thin, deep blue silk with lace overlay and the shorts were identical blue silk, very short, and edged at the bottom in the same lace.

Sighing and hoping they were more comfortable than they looked, I slowly undressed and pulled the silk on. I grimaced as I moved around in it, testing its practicality. The shorts were definitely going to bother me, I decided. My mind didn't want to think about what a show my roommates would get if I bent over for any reason tonight.

"Alice, the shorts are completely stupid!" I screeched down to her. "When have you ever seen me in something like this?!"

Laughter floated up the stairs, followed by Alice's trilling voice. "I also got you a pair of pants to go with the top. They're in the bag in your underwear drawer."

Grateful that she had anticipated my anxiety and taken pity on me, I yanked open my top drawer and fished out the pink bag. I saw a few scraps of silk mixed in with my normal cotton panties and rolled my eyes at Alice's additions to my wardrobe. It wasn't like I was _ever _going to wear them if I could help it. I didn't know why she wasted her money on stuff like that.

The pants were exactly like the shorts with the lace at the bottom, floating around my feet. Slipping them on, happy for a little more coverage, I decided that the pajamas were actually pretty comfortable. The silk felt nice even if it was a little foreign. I quickly threw my hair up into a ponytail and added some chapstick to my lips before re-joining the party.

"You look really cute, Bella!" Alice clapped, examining me.

I twirled, slightly self-conscious for no reason. "They're not half bad," I mumbled before scooping my wine up off of the counter and plopping down on the couch.

Rose cleared her throat. "So we figured we'd just watch a couple of movies tonight, do alot of drinking, and see where the night goes."

I nodded knowingly. With enough liquor in our systems, there was no telling where the night would go. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

Alice held up her wine glass. "For once-in-a-lifetime chances," she began, looking at us knowingly.

I held mine up next. "For the courage to take them," I continued.

Rose raised hers last. "And for the unforgettable moments that result," she finished.

We all smiled and drank to the toast. It was one we had been giving since the beginning of college and it never ceased to give me goosebumps. It was just a wonderful feeling thinking about the idea of being part of something incredible . Something life-alteringly perfect.

"Whcih movie should we watch?" Rose finally asked. We'd all been caught up in our own thoughts, sipping our wine in contemplative silence.

Alice hopped up immediately and went to look at our combined movie collection. "Oh! Ha! We're watching this one first," she shouted, snatching a box off the shelf. She hid it carefully from us as she slid to the television. We rolled our eyes as we watched her quickly load the movie into the DVD player, making sure to conceal the title from us.

"You realize that we _will_ find out what the movie is when we actually start watching it, right?" Rosalie asked sarcastically.

We only had to wait for a moment until the menu flashed across the screen. I groaned. "Seriously, Alice? They both _die_ in the end."

"That's why we're watching it first, Bella. We'll watch a happier movie after this one. Besides, this has someof _the_ most romantic scenes in it!"

"You just think Leonardo DiCaprio is good-looking," I replied scathingly.

"I think it's his hair," Rosalie said with a grin. "I wanna grab onto it and just kiss the life out of him." We all laughed before settling in to watch the beginning of Romeo + Juliet.

"Like...what's with all of the guns?" I asked after only five minutes. "They're flinging guns around in public. Is that even allowed? I'm pretty sure there's got to be some sort of law against that."

"I'm not sure but I am completely confused with that guy's boots. What posessed him to wear cowboy boots with silver heels?" Alice asked, disgusted with the fashion choices in the opening sequences.

The doorbell eventually rang, interrupting a convoluted scene with a black guy dressed like a woman. He was babbling on about something that had to do with Romeo being depressed. I paused it gratefully as we all jumped up. "I never _did_ entirely understand this speech. And I was an English major," I added as a second-thought. "Shouldn't I be able to tell you what Mercutio's saying here? Especially after two Shakespeare classes in my past...?"

Rose took the food from the speechless delivery guy (he was staring at her like she was some sort of miracle) and Alice paid for it. "Thanks," sneered the blonde, not happy to see that the kid was peering with wide-eyed wonder at her boobs.

"What's _with_ guys?" She asked once the door was closed. "It's like he'd never seen them before!"

"Well, he's never seen _your_ boobs before," I reasoned. "Judging from all of the men who have been fascinated by them in the past, I'd say yours are particularly magnificent."

"Seriously," Alice agreed. "They belong in a museum." Rose grimaced before taking a huge bite of pasta.

Finally the first movie ended and we all sighed in relief. The whole thing was bearable to watch only because the romantic moments were spaced nicely throughout. But with Juliet pretending to be dead and Romeo beside himself with grief, the tragedy was tripping forward without the chance for another bone-melting kiss.

"_I'm_ picking the next one," I announced, getting up from the couch. My head was slightly spinning from the wine and both of my roommates giggled. I turned to look at them. "If I'm tipsy then Alice is nearly drunk," I reminded them. Alice laughed harder, proving my point.

Rose got up, seemingly fine despite the fact she'd had about three and a half glasses of wine. "I'm going to mix the margaritas now," she announced happily.

The noise from the blender roared through the apartment as I put the next movie in. "We're watching something where they are both ALIVE at the end of it!" I called, plopping back down next to a still-giggling Alice.

Rose strutted over and handed off the margaritas before joining us. "What did you choose?"

The opening menu of Stardust blared to life on the screen and we all grinned in anticipation, taking sips of our new drinks. Alice made a face. "Did you make them strong enough?"

"Seriously, Rose. One of these and I'm going to be unconscious," I murmured, eyes still rivetted on the screen.

By the end of the movie we were all three pretty far gone and being completely silly. "What do we want to do now?" Alice slurred.

"I know!" Rose shouted much too loudly considering the fact we were both sitting right next to her. "Let's order ice cream!"

"Can you get ice cream delivered?" I wondered doubtfully, trying to keep my voice even.

"Ofcourseyoucan!" The blonde shrugged off of the couch and weaved across the room to the phone book that was still sitting open on the counter. She concentrated much harder than she normally would have had to as she flipped the pages until she found what she wanted. Then, putting her cell phone right in front of her, she slowly dialed a number.

She cleared her throat after a few moments. "Yes. We'd like to place an order for home."

I giggled at her face which was completely confused as she listened to the voice on the other end. She scowled. "Delivery. That's what I meant." It was pretty clear that she'd been drinking and I doubted she was effectively concealing that fact from the ice cream people.

"Ummm... I'm not sure. Let me ask," she mumbled, embarrassed about something. She leaned away from the phone. "What's the address again?"

I cracked up while Alice answered.

After repeating it over the phone, she continued. "I want three things of ice cream."

Alice's lips mashed into a hard line to keep from laughing.

"Yes. Three _pints_. That's what I meant," Rose had her free hand on her hip, clearly pissed off that the guy was giving her such a hard time. "Mint chocolate chip, strawberry, and caramel swirl," she said haughtily. "That's fine... okay, sounds good." She shut the phone with a snap angrily and came back over to sit next to us once more. "Stupid food industry people," she mumbled.

"Whatdo we wanttodo while we're waiting?" I asked, not being able to help that my words were running together.

"I've got an idea!" Alice squealed. "Let's each go around andtellonething that we don't alreadyknow about each other."

I shook my head doubtfully. "I think you know everything about me," my voice said thickly. Even as I said that, though, I remembered one thing that I had purposefully not told them. "Oh!" I said out loud accidentally, blushing profusely and covering my mouth with my hand.

"HA!" Alice yelled, pointing at me. "We're doing it!"

"I'mnotgoingfirst," I said quickly, panicking. I was planning on taking this to my grave but it looked like that was a best-laid plan that wasn't going to work out.

"Fine," Alice agreed. "I'll go first." She seemed remarkably in-control of herself considering she was probably the drunkest of the three of us. "Remember sophomore year ofcollege when I volunteered to tutor at themiddle school onWednesdays?"

We stared at her, thinking back. She had always disappeared that afternoon to go help out the students at the local grade school. I had thought it was a little weird at the time since she had never really done much with volunteer work in the past, but had silently given her credit for it. Taking two hours out of her day had been a big sacrifice for Alice since she had been so involved with campus organizations.

"Well..." she grinned. "I wasn't actually tutoringlittlekids."

"What were you doing?" Rose finally asked.

"The gym hada cardio poledancingclass that I wentto," she said as quickly as possible.

We were silent for only a moment before bursting into laughter. "You were-you...learning...po-pole dancing!" I screeched.

"Instead of teaching children?!" Rose yelled, completely shocked.

"HELL!" I screamed.

"What?" Alice and Rose asked together, puzzled.

"You-you're goingtoHELL!" I laughed out, tears streaming down my face.

We all laughed for another indefinite amount of time before they both looked at me. "No way!" I said. "Rosefirst."

She rolled her eyes but smiled wickedly as she looked at us. "Last year when I was out with a couple of girls from work I saw some guy in an amazing car pull up in the car-parking service thing-"

"Valet service?" Alice asked.

"Whatever," she snapped. "God, you're as bad as the ice cream people. Anyway, I pretended to be working for the _valet_ service so I could take it for a test-drive." She grinned, thinking about the car, no doubt.

"Rose!" I gasped. "You could have been arrested orsomething!"

She shrugged. "I only took it around the block."

"Whatkindof car was it?" Alice wondered.

"A Bugatti Veyron," Rose said dreamily.

We laughed at that. "You'd just about commit murder for one, wouldn't you?" Rose was so ridiculous about cars that it was a full-out obsession. If we wanted to, we could probably have her committed, though I doubted very seriously if the shock treatments would be able to cure her at this point. She was pretty much beyond help.

After we had calmed down, they both looked at me and I took a deep breath. Truth time. I frantically cast around in my mind, hoping to find some other secret to share but couldn't think of a suitable one. They knew basically everything about me. Except this one thing.

"Okay," I blushed. I was never going to live this down. Which was the precise reason I had never told them. "So senioryear of college I sort of lostabet to one of the girls thatwas in a bunch of my Englishclasses."

"What were the terms of the bet?" Rosalie asked with a smirk, already seeing where this was headed.

I blushed even deeper. "If I beather then she had to streak infront of the fraternity houses."

"And if she beat you?" Alice pressed, sitting on the edge of her seat, instinctively knowing that this was going to be good.

"I had to...had to gonakedunder my graduation gown," I slurred as fast as I could. Unfortunately my roommates took this moment to have super-human hearing and had caught every word. They howled with laughter, falling off of the couch and hugging each other as if their lives depended on it.

The doorbell rang and I gratefully shuffled past them, my face still bright red. After fumbling with the lock for a while I finally managed to wretch the door open. A guy in an ill-fitting unifrom was standing on the porch holding a bag full of ice cream. He looked immediately curious from the laughter and stared past me into the house, completely ignoring me.

"Bella's NAKED!" Alice screamed uncontrollably.

My face flushed even more. "I'm not _naked!_" I yelled back over my shoulder, swaying in the doorway. The guy on the doorstep gasped and looked back at me, his eyes raking up and down my figure. I bit my lip in embarrassment but shoved some cash at him and snatched the bag out of his hands. "Nothing to see here," I hissed, slamming the door in his face.

"Well done, Bells!" Rose giggled, stumbling over to me to get her ice cream. "Couldn't have done it better myself."

The ice cream helped sober us up marginally but the rest of the night was basically a drunken blur of jokes, laughter, and another movie (I think...). We all crashed into bed sometime around two or three in the morning, not even remotely caring about anything other than sleeping. My last thought was a hopeful wish that they wouldn't remember my naked graduation situation by morning.

**AN: One of the reviewers was wondering if I was going to write in the double-date between Alice, Rose, Jasper, and Emmett. Of course I am! A good portion of this story is from Edward and Bella's perspective but I will occasionally be switching to the other characters. I'm particularly excited about an Emmett and Rose scene in the future. (Jasper and Alice will have a wonderful one, too. I just haven't thought it up yet...)**

**Sorry about the long delay. Classes were ridiculous this week. Next chapter up very soon!**


	7. Hangover Hissy Fit

**"Hangover Hissy Fit"**

**Edward's POV**

As we walked around the block on Saturday around eleven in the morning, I sighed and thought about the events from last night. They were the reason we were now on our way over to bother our neighbors who we had never met before. Emmett had been pretty cheerful about it, commenting on how it would be nice to get to know the people we were living around. I didn't agree. I hated barging in on people's lives when they wanted to be left alone.

_The Night Before..._

Emmett barged through the front door with his hands full of six-packs. "Someone get the door," he grunted as he hefted everything onto the counter, trying not to break any bottles. They clinked as he slung them around.

"Please tell me you also got the food," I commented, not seeing anything that could be categorized as anything other that 'alcoholic beverage.' There was no way I was going to survive much longer if I didn't get some dinner into my system soon.

He rolled his eyes at me. "I'm not an idiot." He yanked a bag out of the middle of the other packages and tossed it at me. "Bon apetit."

I wasn't entirely sure his first statement was correct, but I didn't contest it as I grabbed the plastic out of his hand. Carrying the meat over to the other side of the kitchen, I pulled out the steaks and quickly prepared them for the grill. Emmett cracked open a beer behind me and took a swig, looking around the otherwise empty apartment. "Where's Jasper?"

"Out trying to get the grill lit," I told him absently, attempting to figure out what, exactly, I was doing. I was usually a pretty good cook when I had some instructions but five-minute marinades weren't exactly my speciality.

"No way!" Emmett yelled. "He's not cooking these by himself! Everyone knows I'm better at it than the two of you combined," he sprinted out the back door to supervise our other roommate. I grinned, knowing it would drive Jasper up the wall to have Emmett hover.

The grill was lit and warm by the time I brought the steaks out and the two chefs were arguing over who was going to be in charge of keeping an eye on them. Jasper wasn't usually so immature but Emmett's goading had finally gotten to him and he was arguing just for the sake of not letting Emmett have what he wanted. "C'mon, man," the bigger of the two finally whined. "You can watch yours but I want to do mine and Edward's."

Jasper huffed out a sigh. "Fine," he surrendered. "But don't _touch_ mine."

Emmett did a victory dance with the tongs and went to hang over the grill. He was probably going to get burned for his trouble. The thought made me chuckle as I handed over the plate of meat. He looked at me suspiciously, wondering what I found so amusing, but, for once, didn't ask me. That was probably for the best. I didn't want him to go up in smoke if it occurred to him to play with the fire. I was in no mood to put out a flaming roommate.

Dinner ended up being wonderful. There really wasn't any substitute for a well-cooked steak. We'd baked a few potatoes and gotten a quick salad together to go with the main event. For a while, we lounged on our back porch drinking, telling jokes, and generally enjoying each other's company. Unfortunately, a night that was restful with no strange events was not to be had.

Emmett got up eventually and went back inside for another drink. I heard him heading back toward us and, suddenly, something extremely hard pelted me in the back of the head. The jolt was so unexpected that I dropped my drink, the bottle shattering on the concrete of the porch. I stared at it, shocked, for only a moment, before growling at him, grabbing the offending football, and throwing it as hard as I could into the night.

The idiot let out an excited cry and ran after it like a labrador after a frisbee. Before Jasper and I could shout to warn him, an ear-splitting crack echoed through the night, followed closely by the sound of wood splintering and Emmett cursing fluently. The hole he left in the fence was a good three feet wide.

We looked at him, nonplussed, until Jasper finally commented. "He does that a lot."

"Yep," I agreed.

We all got up and examined the damage. it wasn't too bad, to be honest. We were going to have to replace a few of the vertical boards, but the general framework was somehow untouched. Emmett seemed almost proud of his work. "I've never smashed through a fence before," he mused contemplatively.

I groaned. "We're going to have to explain this to the people in that house," I pointed to the lit windows shining out of the back door on the other side of the gaping hole. We could hear laughter on the other side of the curtains. "There's no way we'll be able to fix it before they notice."

"No problem, dude," Emmett said. "We'll just go over there tomorrow and get it taken care of."

_Back to the present..._

"Okay, dude. Seriously, I think this is the wrong house. We need to go back one," I cautioned. We had counted very carefully. Our new residence was the eighth one down the street. Since the neighboring cove we were now on was identical to ours, that meant the house we were looking for should be the eighth one down. We were currently deliberating in front of the ninth.

Emmett scoffed at me. "Trust me, guys. This is the right one. Our house was eight away from the end of the road." He started up the path to the front door.

"This is the ninth house," Jasper pointed out, hanging back with me.

"Exactly," Emmett let out an exasperated sigh. "Eight houses and _then_ our house." Jasper and I glanced at one another, silently communicating our foreknowledge that this wasn't going to be good, before following behind our roommate.

He raised up one giant fist and knocked. "Okay, look," he said, turning to us. "Just let me do the talking. If we charm the hell out of them, maybe they won't care that we busted up the fence." He ran his hands through his hair and winked at us.

I bit my lip while watching him. It was hard not to laugh when he was planning on relying on his flirting skills to get us out of this mess. It sounded good in theory, sure, but what was going to happen when someone who wasn't a teenage girl answered the door? What if some old fat guy answered? Then Emmett was going to have to re-work his strategy...

"What do you want?" A harsh voice called through the door without opening it. "If you're selling something, I'm not interested!"

Emmett looked over his shoulder at us, clearly confused. We silently chuckled at him. He wasn't used to having to deal with people through a door. "Um..." he boomed. "I'm one of your neighbors and I just wanted to have a quick word with you."

"I don't want to sacrifice my life over to any door-to-door evangelists, either! You're a cult and I don't want anything to do with you! Go away!" The woman screeched.

"No, ma'am, you don't understand!" Emmett called, clearly frustrated. "We're your neighbors and we think we may have damaged your fence!"

The door flew open and we all took a step back. The little old woman's beady eyes were sunken into her face in a series of folds and wrinkles. Her mouth looked like it was permanently turned down and her grey, fly-away hair hung to her shoulders. Her expression was one of undiluted anger. "What. Did. You. Say?" She asked in a deadly quiet voice.

Emmett gulped and I smothered another grin. She was one-tenth his size but he was suddenly afraid of her. "We-We just wanted to apologize for your fence and let you know that we will be paying for the cost of the repair," he said, trying to be as gracious as possible.

"You broke my fence?" She rasped. "_My_ fence? It's _mine_! Why did you even touch it?" She wheeled around quickly and hobbled back into her house, leaving the front door wide open with us standing there, gaping after her. Was she gone? Was she coming back? Did she, in some unforseen turn of events, happen to have a large man in there who was going to come out and run us off?

After a considerable time, we were just turning to leave when she came shuffling back down the hall. "You horrible children! My fence is fine! What is the meaning of this? Do you take pleasure in bothering old women?!" Her voice was hysterical as she chewed us out.

Emmett stuttered. "I'm...I guess we have the wrong house. I'm really so-"

"What did you take?" She asked suddenly, peering at him with suspicion. She seemed to have realized she'd left her door open to three complete strangers. "Give it back!" She demanded, glancing around her foyer for anything that might have been missing.

Emmett gaped at her. "Ma'am, we didn't take anything. We just have the wrong house."

"Wrong house. HA! You have the wrong neighborhood. Get out of here before I call the police!" She yelled up at him venomously before slamming the door in our faces. We all stood there, completely stunned. Had that just happened?

Before she noticed that we hadn't left and actually _did_ call the cops, we hurried down the path and out to the sidewalk. "Are you sure this was the right house?" Jasper asked Emmett, trying to supress a laugh.

"Shut up, man," Emmett snarled. "God, she was insane..." He thought for a moment and then glanced sideways at us sheepishly. "Fine, maybe it's the eighth one."

We rolled our eyes but hiked next door anyway, walking up the path with a little more confidence this time. Jasper was the one who knocked and Emmett didn't seem to mind, having had his fill of friendly neighbors for one day. No one immediately answered and we frowned at each other. There were three cars parked in the driveway. Surely someone was home. Jasper rang the doorbell and knocked again.

My stomach twisted in excited anticipation at the sudden realization that the brunette girl who liked my music so much lived here. I found myself hoping she was the one that would answer the door.

Nothing. No one came to the door. We didn't hear a peep from inside. "Try one more time, Jasper, and then let's call it a day. We can try again later," Emmett said.

"What if they are home and just don't want to answer the door?" Jasper asked anxiously. "We'd be harrassing them."

I rolled my eyes. "If they're there, they should answer the door. If they aren't home, then we aren't bothering anyone." Jasper rang the doorbell and knocked once more. This time, however, there was an immediate reaction.

"Oh. My. _GOD_. Will you _please_ go away?" A voice issued from above us, clearly upset. All three of our heads snapped up at once to see a blonde girl with a sleep mask on her forehead sticking her head out of the second-floor window. She looked livid.

Emmett immediately got angry with her. "What the HELL is wrong with your neighborhood?! Does no one come down and answer the door properly anymore?"

"If you had a raging hangover headache you'd be pissed, too," she hissed, clutching her forehead and wincing.

"Who in the name of all that is holy _is_ that?" A softer voice asked behind her.

Blondie yelled over her shoulder, answering the disembodied voice. "Some _perverts_ that want a good show!" She glared back down at us.

"What's _wrong_ with men?!" Her friend asked back, annoyed. "I swear, every guy that comes to that door is only there to stare at you two!"

"HEY!" Emmett boomed at the only girl we could see, though his words were meant for both of them. "We just wanted to come over and APOLOGIZE for busting up your fence last night! So just back the hell off of us, why don't you?!"

"GO AWAY!" She shouted angrily before slamming the window back down.

"I'm calling the cops!" Another voice floated over to us and we turned, aghast, to see the little old woman standing on her front porch, dialing her phone furiously.

"Shit!' Jasper muttered. "Go! Let's get out of here!" We booked it down the street and disappeared around the corner. We didn't stop until we made it to our own front door though, worried that police cars would swarm us before we could make it under cover.

Completely out of breath, we collapsed on the couch in utter frustration. "Well that went well," Emmett said sarcastically. "Are you two sure we still want to live in this neighborhood?"

"Do you think the cops are actually going to come?" Jasper asked.

"If she really called them, they'll come. I'm just glad we didn't have one of our cars. She could have written down the license plate number and then we'd be screwed," I thought out loud.

"Right, gents. We're going to have to lay low, then," Emmett chortled. "I _will_ say, that blonde girl could probably clean herself up and look pretty damn hot if she wanted to."

"Really, man? We're wanted men and you want to talk about the crazy chick?" Jasper laughed.

"I'm just pointing out the obvious," Emmett defended himself with a chuckle. "Anyone up for a game of Call of Duty before lunch?"

**Bella's POV**

I woke up to someone pounding on the door and groaned at the splitting pain that started from the point between my eyes before radiating to the rest of my head. I felt like absolute shit and someone was going to have to answer the stupid door. I opened my eyes and groaned again, shutting them and burying my head under the pillow so the painful light couldn't inflict any more damage. Why had I drunk so much last night? After the second margarita I'd completely lost count.

Maybe the people at the door would go away? More knocking echoed through the still house and the sharp peal of the doorbell buzzed out, making me feel like someone had jabbed a knife through my temple. I moaned again in misery, sliding slowly out of bed in a desperate attempt for some water. That should help the headache, anyway.

Opening my eyes as little as possible, I felt around on my floor for my robe as I heard Rosalie shuffling up the stairs. She was muttering angrily to herself about unwanted guests. Why on earth did she come upstairs, then? Shouldn't she just answer the door and tell them to go away?

Rosalie proceeded to the bathroom and was lifting the window while I vaguely wondered what she was doing. I slipped the silk wrapper around myself as the doorbell screamed out again, followed by more knocking, and I cried out, clutching my head pitifully and staggering in the direction of the bathroom.

"Oh. My. _GOD_. Will you _please_ go away?" She called down, ticked off. If I could have smiled at her without cracking my skull into two horribly painful halves, I would have. Leave it to her to run them off. She was good at that sort of thing when she wanted to be.

"What the HELL is wrong with your neighborhood?! Does no one come down and answer the door properly anymore?" A deep voice immediately answered her, matching the tone of his words to that of Rose's. Who was out there? I'd never heard that voice before, which meant that some complete stranger was knocking on our door before noon on Saturday morning. I winced at that. _Before noon_...ugh.

"If you had a raging hangover headache you'd be pissed, too," I heard Rosalie spit.

I filled a cup with water as I tried to see past my roommate. The daylight was even brighter and more bothersome than the dim light in my dark room, though, and I shrank back. "Who in the name of all that is holy _is_ that?" I asked from a safe distance.

"Some _perverts_ that want a good show!" Rose threw over her shoulder.

My frown immediately deepened. Couldn't guys leave my roommates the hell alone? Sure, they were beautiful. That was a given. And probably if I were a man, I'd want to look at them forever also. But it was one hundred percent insane that we couldn't order a pizza or get ice cream without them being mentally undressed. "What's _wrong_ with men?!" I complained. "I swear, every guy that comes to that door is only there to stare at you two!"

"HEY!" The angry voice yelled back. "We just wanted to come over and APOLOGIZE for busting up your fence last night! So just back the hell off of us, why don't you?!"

"GO AWAY!" Rose shouted before she yanked the window back down with a crash. I winced.

"What did they do to our fence?" I mumbled, gulping some water and looking for the Aleve.

"Who gives a damn?" Rose grumbled, stomping off back down the stairs.

The phone rang about two minutes after I climbed back into bed and I almost cried. "Hello?" I whispered into the phone, hoping the person on the other end would take the hint and speak softly.

"Girls, it's Mrs. Lane next door," the harsh croak of our neighbor echoed out of the receiver. I bit my lip to try and ride out the pounding in my skull.

"Hey, Mrs. Lane. Are you alright?" I asked quietly.

"No, I'm not! I called the police about those men that were out in front of our houses. You girls don't dare open the door to strangers, understand?" She asked hotly.

"Yes, Ma'am. Thank you for calling," I sighed, not entirely sure what sort of answer would get her off of the phone fastest.

"They could be dangerous," she continued. "And you have a house full of pretty girls over there. There's no telling what could happen to you all if you're not careful."

"I completely understand," my voice cracked out. "Thanks again and have a good day, Mrs. Lane."

"You, too, dear."

The line went dead and I gratefully burried myself back under my covers, hoping not to have to emerge for a few more hours.

**AN: Next chapter is date night!! What do you think so far?**


	8. A Night to Remember

**AN: Okay, everyone is going to have to bear with me here and try to keep up. I switch points of view alot because I wanted to convey everyone's reactions to their date. Pay attention to the switches and enjoy! **

**"A Night to Remember"**

**Rosalie's POV**

I was never one to half-ass something. Ever. When prom came around, did I pick out a generic princess froo-froo dress just because everyone else would do the same thing and I didn't want to go over the top? Hell no. The very last thing I had wanted to do was blend in. If I was going to spend all of that time on my hair and make-up, on picking out a dress, it wasn't going to be so that I could be the cookie-cutter senior prom attendee with the sparkly clips in my hair and a giant uncomfortable flower strapped to my wrist. I had been a goddess that night in my backless red dress. The flowers were in my hair; tiny red rosebuds woven into the French twist. My date had gotten me a bracelet instead of some stupid corsage that I would have ended up whacking myself in the face with every other dance.

The same methodology- of looking better than every other girl in the room- went into getting ready for the blind date. Fine, it wasn't a _blind_ date, since I'd seen him in Alice's store. I could admit that he was extremely attractive, even by my standards. He was certainly big enough to dwarf me, which was saying something since I'd alway been a good head or two taller than all of my friends. This guy had to be _at least _6'3? 6'4? And his chiseled body! God, just thinking about it made me shiver.

I frowned as my thoughts wandered. Physically, he was a dream come true. His mind, however was still a mystery. As was his personality. I was going to be royally pissed off at Alice forever if he turned out to be some kind of horrible creep with caveman intelligence _or_ caveman personality. Nothing caveman. Although it'd be interesting to see him in a loin cloth...

My head shook to clear itself. Now was not the time.

I twirled one last time in front of the mirror. I'd chosen a tight black halter top with a sweetheart neckline, dark skinny jeans, and a pair of patent leather stilettos. My hair waved down my back in gentle perfection and my make-up was sexy enough to catch the eye of any guy that I passed just by glancing at him. I smiled my dazzling smile, added a little lipstick, and clicked quickly out of the room.

"Alice!" I yelled up the stairs. "You'd better be ready soon! I don't want to be more than ten minutes late!"

"For someone who didn't want to go, you sure are eager to get there, aren't you?" Alice laughed, stepping carefully down the stairs. She looked amazing, too, though I hadn't expected anything less. She and I could both easily turn heads anywhere we went. My beauty was more classic, like the actresses in 1920's Hollywood. Hers was more like the fashion runways in Paris. She was edgy. Her look was very eye-grabbing and extremely flattering but still completely different than mine.

She came down in a short, royal-blue wrap dress with a wide black belt and a pair of black pumps to match. Laughing when she got to the bottom, she spun in a circle for me. "Do you approve?" Her eyes were sparkling.

"It's so cute, Alice! I haven't seen it before, though. Is it new?" I exclaimed, noting how it draped just right to make her look like she had more of a figure.

She shrugged. "Couldn't say no when I found it." Her eyes darted around the apartment. "Where's Bella? She wasn't up in her room."

"She just left for the grocery store," I said, a little bit sad.

Bella didn't see herself clearly and it wasn't helping that the two of us were going out on dates, leaving her here in the apartment. After what had happened to her in college, though, I couldn't blame her for wanting to steer clear of guys. It was hard for her to believe that they didn't _all_ have a dark side to them. There were some good ones out there if she'd only let herself be open to the idea. Just because some bastard had-

"Do you think she's okay?" Alice asked in a small voice, seeing my train of thought in my expression.

I sighed. "No. And she doesn't even realize it, Alice."

She nodded but didn't say anything more, lost in thought as well. I didn't have to be very intuitive to be able to tell what she was thinking about. Bella was absolutely stunning and didn't even know it. She couldn't get it out of her head that she was much more than just average-looking and no amount of convincing could make her see the truth. I supposed everything always went back to college. God, if I ever saw him again, I'd kill him myself.

Alice let out a small sigh. "Do you want to get going?"

I nodded. She and I had had hours of discussions over Bella and how we could help her. Nothing had come to mind other than to try and get her to date again. That in itself would be a miracle...

**Emmett's POV**

If Jasper made us late I was going to kill him. The last thing I wanted to do was show up and have them already sitting there waiting on us. There was no way they'd ever agree to go out with us again if they had to wait. The man was supposed to wait on the woman. That was how it worked. Except here I was, waiting on another man.

"Jasper! Enough primping! You're pretty enough!" I yelled.

"Chill out, man!" He shouted back at me. "You're lucky I'm even coming. Don't hastle me."

I rolled my eyes. Compared to the girls he'd dated in the past, the one I set him up with tonight was going to knock him on his ass. She wasn't my type at all, as tiny as she was. There was something about her that would have tempted me to ask her out anyway if the blonde hadn't been standing next to her. Jasper was going to be falling all over himself for the little brunette, though. The least he could do was be grateful. "You're going to thank me once you see your date. Now come _on_!"

Jasper was grimacing as he strode into the room. "If this night is painful, you're going to owe me a month of drinks," he barked gruffly.

"Wanna make it a two-way street, man? How about a bet?" I asked with a smirk.

Edward chuckled from the couch. "That sounds like the beginning of a bad movie," he commented.

"What?" I asked, not following. I hated it when he made cryptic remarks like that. How were we supposed to read his mind?

"Guy makes a bet about a girl. Guy falls in love with girl. Girl finds out, leaves guy, guy chases her, they fall in love...kiss...roll the credits," he said, not even looking up from the newspaper.

Jasper chuckled. "That's not one I'm signing up to go watch opening night."

Now we really _were _going to be late. "Damn it, Jasper, let's go!"

"Keep your panties on, man, I'm looking for my keys," he snarled before fishing them out of the basket on the counter.

**Jasper's POV**

If Emmett didn't calm down I was staying home. That's all there was to it. The only reason I had agreed to come to begin with was because I knew he'd never let me hear the end of it if I didn't. Literally, he would bring it up eighty years from now just to annoy me. So, in order to save myself a lifetime of headaches, I was now heading out to my car with him.

"This better be worth it," I grumbled, turning the key in the ignition.

He sighed. "Just drive. You'll thank me for this when I'm the best man at your wedding."

"What makes you think I won't choose Edward?" I asked, just to harass him.

He looked like I'd just punched him. "You'd choose Edward over me, man?" He whined.

I levelled him a look. When it was all said and done, I knew Edward better. I had more in common with Edward. Telling Emmett this little detail right now seemed like bad timing, though. I rolled my eyes. "I haven't thought that far in advance," I answered vaguely. Did he think I sat around and planned my wedding?

He relaxed. "Well, you're going to want to start planning after you see who I've set you up with," he retorted confidently.

I wrinkled my nose but didn't say anything. The girls that he usually went for weren't my type at all. He always went for that over-the-top beautiful girl who belonged in a shampoo commercial. They were always really pretty and really stupid. If that was the sort of girl he'd chosen for me, this was going to be a hellish night. Certainly I didn't want an ugly girl, but maybe someone who wasn't as in-your-face gorgeous would be nice. With spirit. I'd dated way too many boring girls. I needed someone exciting. That was a tall order and the idea of Emmett finding someone like that when I had been unable to seemed pretty impossible.

We found the restaurant easily and pulled into the parking lot. Emmett looked like he was about to bolt out of the moving vehicle and I had to bite my tongue to keep from snapping at him. He was acting like a little kid on the way to Disney World. If he didn't chill out we were both going to look like complete fools.

We strode inside and Emmett immediately stepped up to the seating hostess. "We have a reservation under McCarty," he said politely, scanning the crowd.

"Right this way, sir," said the girl after checking her list. She led us straight to a table for four in the corner of the restaurant and we sat down.

I glanced around, noting how nice the restaurant looked. I wondered about a couple of the paintings on the walls but didn't have a chance to let my eyes wander for very long because they had caught sight of a small girl standing near the entrance, looking curiously around.

The air left my lungs when I saw her. She was possibly one of the most beautiful girls I'd ever seen with her smooth skin and dark eyes. There was something so charming about her that I found myself immediately in a bad mood that I was about to have dinner with some bimbo when there was a girl like that sitting in the room. She was probably with another guy and I instantly hated him.

She turned her head in my direction and I felt an electric jolt when she looked at me. She cocked her head slightly to the side, examining me. I knew I was staring but I couldn't help it. I tried to look away and wasn't able to. Our eye contact was broken when she glanced past me and smiled a huge, breath-taking smile.

She disappeared then before I could even blink. I didn't have to wait long, however, before she came back into view with some other girl in tow. It was Emmett's gasp that caught my attention and I turned my head reluctantly to see what his problem was.

"Jasper, that's her!" He hissed at me.

I followed his eye line to see that he was gaping at the other girl in the pair, a blonde bombshell that looked exactly like his type. My jaw clenched as I put two and two together. If his date was the blonde one, then that meant...

I gulped, standing up with Emmett, as the little one danced toward us. She gave me a sly smile before turning to Emmett first.

"Well, hello again," she said brightly. Her voice was like wind-chimes. Wonderful.

I glanced quickly at Emmett, already jealous that she'd spoken to him first. He hadn't even acknowledged her which made me furious for some reason. He was too busy staring at the blonde. It was rude to ignore a greeting! My fist clenched and I was about to take things into my own hands when my date laughed, high and musical.

"This is Rosalie," she said, pulling the other girl in front of her. She left them to their own introductions and turned to me at once. Her eyes met mine and, suddenly, I felt like my entire world had just fallen into place.

"Hello," she said. "By process of elimination, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're my date for the evening. I'm Alice."

"Hello," I said, my voice lower than usual because of my nerves. Was it really okay that I talked to her? "I'm Jasper. You look beautiful, Alice." Her name rolled off of my tongue with such perfect ease that it was a wonder I hadn't been saying her name my entire life.

**Alice's POV**

I couldn't keep the smile off of my face. An introduction and a compliment all in one breath. Well, he's a keeper. "Jasper," I tested it. "It's very nice to meet you."

He was dressed in black slacks and a dark blue button-down with the sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms. He looked perfect. Tall and blonde with piercing dark eyes, a flawless face, and a lean body that was making my knees go weak. If I didn't sit down soon, I was going to topple over. Jasper seemed to sense my need, though hopefully not the motivations, and quickly pulled my chair out for me. He motioned for me to have a seat and carefully helped me scoot closer to the table.

I glanced at Rose and her date (still didn't know his name...) and giggled. They hadn't said a word and were just staring at each other wordlessly. My laugh had caught Rose's attention, however, and she quickly caught up with herself. She looked back at the big guy and flashed her best smile. "I'm Rosalie," she purred.

I rolled my eyes. If she ever wanted him to actually say something, she was going to need to tone it down. Surprisingly, the guy gathered his witts about him pretty quickly considering he was the victim of some of Rose's best work. "Emmett," he said in a deep voice, pulling her chair out also.

I turned back to Jasper, not caring what happened to the other half of our dinner party now that they were no longer awkwardly standing in complete silence. Jasper was staring at me and the pit of my stomach rolled over in nervous pleasure. "So, Jasper," I said. "What's your life story?"

He paused for a moment, thinking. "Well," he began. "I'm a history professor at the university up the road, I've got three brothers, my family's from Texas, and my favorite movie is Gettysburg with Jeff Daniels." He flashed me a grin, having chosen random facts about himself and listing them off in rapid succession.

I laughed, unable to help myself. "Why don't you have more of a Texas accent and are all your brothers older?" I hadn't been sure which question to ask first so I'd strung them together.

His grin grew wider. "Well, ma'am," his voice had a southern twang this time. "I went to school in this area and lost my accent and only two of my brothers are older." He'd followed my lead and answered both questions in one breath. I chuckled at him again. "What about you?" He asked, his voice normal once more.

I smirked. "I don't have a Texas accent because I've never been there and I don't have any brothers."

His laugh was contagious and mine joined him. They wove together in a perfect rhythm that gave me immense pleasure.

**Rosalie's POV**

"This is Rosalie," I heard Alice chirp as she pulled me forward. I couldn't find it in me to say anything, though. He was still a complete stranger, but the way he was looking at me was... I didn't even know.

Certainly there was admiration there, which pleased me to no end. I would have been disappointed if he hadn't been a little bit speechless at least. I knew I was hot and I'd be damned if he didn't appreciate that. There was more in his expression and the way his eyes met mine, however. There was a depth there that I hadn't expected.

I'd gotten a good enough look at him on the way over to realize that my memories of his appearance hadn't done him justice. His body was even more amazing than I'd remembered it. He practically oozed masculinity, which made me feel unbelievably feminine. Small, even. It was a heady sensation and I instantly liked it. I wondered what it would feel like to be in those strong arms of his...

But his eyes! They were a very deep blue and they seemed to radiate feeling. I could have sworn he was physically touching me with them, somehow, and I couldn't bear to look away. It wasn't until the sound of Alice's laughter cut through my thoughts that I managed to snap out of it.

I glanced quickly at her before pulling myself together and releasing the full force of my smile back on my date. "I'm Rosalie," I said in a low, attractive voice.

He clenched his jaw for a short second before regaining his composure. "Emmett," he said in a very deep voice as he pulled out my chair.

Um, orgasm? My breath hitched as I felt his hand slide to my lower back to help me around my chair. He let out a low laugh. Shit. He'd noticed. "Thank you," I murmured.

"So, Rosalie," he said, sitting down himself. His confidence was sexy. Usually guys fell all over themselves and couldn't string two words together. "I guess I don't need to tell you how absolutely, drop-dead gorgeous you look tonight, do I? Every man in here is admiring you."

Had he really just said that? I felt my face flush with pleasure. "Thank you," I said again. Why couldn't I talk to this man? I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and squared my shoulders.

"So, Emmett, tell me about yourself," I brushed his arm with my fingertips and felt him stiffen, his eyes widening slightly. I smirked at him. Ha! I'd gotten to him.

He gave me a speculative look before smirking right back at me. "I can't remember anything right now," he said in an even lower voice. "I'm too busy staring at you. Why don't you start?"

I gaped at him. Actually gaped. Damn it! He was good. "Um," I floundered. "What do you want to know?"

**Emmett's POV**

"Um... What do you want to know?" Rosalie asked me.

I chuckled at her, unable to help myself. She was like a dream come true. How could she be this hot _and_ actually have substance to her? I'd stared into her eyes long enough to know that I wasn't dealing with the usual empty-headed blonde. "What would you like to tell me?" I fired back. She was playing a game here and I was going to do everything I could to keep up with her. This could go somewhere dangerous.

She stared at me for a second before taking another deep breath. I watched her chest rise and fall and thought I would pass out. I concentrated hard on her eyes, not wanting her to catch me staring sown her shirt. "Well," she began. "I like to drive fast." Her smile was a little suggestive and my mind immediately went to alternative meanings to that sentence.

I couldn't help grinning at her. "That's good news," I laughed.

We ordered eventually but I wasn't really paying attention to what I was eating. Not with Rosalie sitting next to me, giving me her full attention. I was the luckiest guy in the room and I was pretty sure every other man here agreed with me. They were all sending jealous glances our way every now and then, making me want to stand on my chair and brag to every last one of them that their dates were hideous compared with mine.

Conversation flowed smoothly, switching topics every now and then. Some were funny, some were more serious. It didn't matter what we talked about, though, she seemed to be able to keep up with me. It wasn't until dessert that I remembered that there were two other people sitting at the table. The only reason the thought crossed my mind was because I suddenly heard british accents coming from the other couple.

"Well, I'm not sure," Alice said, mimicking a perfect English accent.

"Nor am I," Jasper replied.

They were both looking at the dessert menu, very seriously trying to decide what they wanted, and I couldn't help but laugh at them. "What the hell are you two doing?" I asked. Rosalie had noticed at the exact same moment and was staring at them with shock all over her perfect face.

"We're ordering cake, my dear fellow," Jasper raised his eyebrows at me, his eyes sparkling.

"So you've elected to go with the cake, then, sir?" Alice asked in a very grave tone.

Everyone at the table cracked up and, as we each ordered a dessert, the conversation widened to include the four of us. It wasn't hard to see that Jasper would ask Alice out again and I couldn't wait to spend more time with Rosalie. Hopefully alone. I almost groaned out loud at the thought of kissing her...

**AN: Ha! I'm leaving it here for the time being. Hope you all enjoyed each character's portrayal. Emmett is intelligent and sexy when he wants to be and Japser molds himself to Alice's wonderful personality. I pretty much fell in love with these two couples while writing this.**

**Let me know what you think!**


	9. A Gum Emergency

**Bella's POV**

"Crap." I realized two steps inside the store that I had forgotten the grocery list in the car. Pausing, I briefly considered being lazy and just shopping from memory. The sound of Alice's whining last time I tried to do that came back to me. I suppose she was justified since I'd forgotten tampons and shampoo, both of which are generally essential items. I pivoted on my foot and headed back in the direction of the parking lot with a sigh. Tonight was going to be a long night.

I genuinely hoped that Alice and Rose were having a good time out on their date and I was trying hard not to think too much about poor, reclusive Bella who was stuck at home by herself. A picture of me fifty years from now floated up into my head. I was in those flannel pajamas Rose always scoffed at, I was sitting on the couch in a one-bedroom house, and I was petting a cat. I wondered if I'd get invites from my friends for Thanksgiving and other major holidays?

I flinched just thinking about it. Since when was I some pathetic girl? Shaking myself, I tried to focus on tonight and tonight only. I set my jaw and walked toward my car with more purpose. I was just fine. I had had a blast last night with my roommates and this evening I was going to enjoy my solitude. Lord knows I got little enough as it was with Alice as a roommate.

Flinging my car door open, I snatched the grocery list off of the passenger's seat and whirled around, slamming the door behind me. I barely took one hurried step toward the lights of the super market doors before being unexpectedly yanked backwards. I heard a ripping sound as my back slammed into my car door. Looking down, it was obvious to see why I wasn't going anywhere. I'd shut the corner of my jacket in the door.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said under my breath. Trying the door handle and finding it locked, I fumbled with my keys and finally heard the _click_ as the mechanism released. Opening the door, I surveyed the damage to the jacket. It wasn't too bad, given that the material had ripped up one of the seams. Once it had been repaired it would be good as new. Unless I wanted to go shopping looking like a hobo, however, the it wasn't wearable tonight. I shrugged out of it and looked down at what I was still wearing. It hadn't occurred to me that I would have to go without the jacket. My remaining clothes consisted of an overly tight black tank top and a pair of stretch pants Alice had given me when we started taking Ashtanga yoga classes last year.

Sighing, I shrugged and threw the remains of my jacket into my car before resuming my trek back to the store. I wasn't exactly comfortable with the outfit but neither was I about to go home to change when I was already here. Besides, it wasn't like I was going to kindle some crazy, unforeseen romance in the milk and cheese asile. Even as I thought about that, though, my mind immediately went to the deep green eyes of Edward the Coffee Guy. I suppose if I _had_ to have a crazy, unforeseen romance in the milk and cheese asile, I'd want it to be with him. Blushing to myself and chuckling, I grabbed the handle of the nearest cart and made my way inside.

An hour later, I was standing in front of the magazines, going over everything I had in the cart versus everything that was on my list. Apart from baking supplies, everything was present and accounted for. Shoving my cart in the right direction, I put all my concentration on making it go straight despite the front left wheel that was doing everything it could to cause trouble. Why did I always get the messed up grocery buggies? I was a generally nice person and wasn't ever rude to anyone on purpose. You'd figure that karma would kick in at some point and allow me to end up with the carts that didn't exacerbate my clumsiness.

As if to prove my point, the left wheel of my buggy jerked at the last second and, before I could stop it, the edge of the whole thing clipped a can on the corner of the shelf. I clenched my teeth as I watched the can drop to the ground, along with six or seven others. The sound each made as it hit the tile was a gunshot that reverberated down the asile. Forcing myself not to look around at the store patrons that must have been staring, I circled around the cart and dropped to my knees, gathering the cans in my arms so that I could put them back where they had been.

Taking a deep breath, I put one foot in front of the other until I wheeled into the baking section. I grabbed the three or four remaining things on my list plus a bar of dark chocolate all for me and then proceeded to the checkout line as fast as I could manage it without having any more attention-grabbing clumsy moments to add to my long repertoire.

The woman in front of me was just getting her receipt from the sales boy when I became aware of someone standing in line behind me, humming under their breath. I glanced over my shoulder curiously, hoping they wouldn't notice my looking. I stiffened in recognition as I saw the same green eyes, smooth skin, and bronze hair from the coffee shop the other day.

"Hi," I blurted out, surprised, before I could stop myself. Was that too eager? Too ditzy? God, he was going to think I was a freak. I felt my cheeks heat up. His smile broadened at my greeting. Hm. Alright maybe it wasn't a total loss of a conversation yet.

"Hello," he said smoothly. "How are you tonight, Bella?" He said my name softly, almost like he could have been uttering an endearment. My cheeks heated even more.

I dropped my gaze from his and took a deep breath to steady myself. What was the question? How am I? "I'm… I'm well. How are you?"

"Doing very well," he answered calmly. Was I the only blundering idiot, here? He seemed to be perfectly fine with this interaction. Why was I freaking out so much? "Have you had a good week?" I heard the sound of the check out boy starting to run my basket of things but I couldn't turn around and give him my attention.

I took another deep breath and committed to calming down enough to have a sane conversation with this man. "It's been a little rough in places but nothing I can't work with," I said, attempting to smile. I wasn't about to share with him that work had sucked, that I'd been clumsier than usual, or that my roommates were both out on dates tonight while I filled my evening running errands and doing chores. "What are you doing here?" I surveyed his general area and didn't see a grocery cart. His hands were empty. Who stands in a grocery line with no groceries to buy?

He fumbled for a second, looking around him. I smiled a little to myself, glad to see that his show of calmness wasn't entirely without flaws. "Oh. Well. I'm uh… here for gum," he finished, grabbing a pack off of the shelf next to him.

"Gum?" I asked, doubtful.

"Gum," he said matter-of-factly. "I had a gum emergency, so here I am."

"Oh, ok." I wasn't going to embarrass him by prying any further. The check out boy gave me the final cost and I paid, watching Edward out of the corner of my eye. Awkwardly, I paused once I had my receipt. Should I wait for him? What would Rosalie do in this sort of situation? I gritted my teeth. I already knew exactly what she would do. She'd flirt shamelessly until Edward was a puddle on the floor. I'd have to call that plan B, though, because her type of flirting wouldn't go well for me.

"Hey, wait for me, Bella," Edward said, reaching out and touching my arm. Warmth shot through me and settled in my stomach at the contact. I smiled a soft smile as I looked at him.

"Alright," I agreed without thinking.

**Edward's POV**

I set my hand basket on the ground as I pulled the grocery list out of my back pocket. There were only ten or twelve things on the list so I shouldn't need it but I wanted to triple check that I had everything. The last thing I wanted to do was forget something and have to come back. I was scanning down the items when the sound of cans hitting the floor made me jump. Wincing, I looked up at the poor person who'd knocked them over. It was like a scene right out of a cheesy TV show where some unfortunate person crashes into a pyramid of cans and the whole thing comes tumbling down.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw her. I'd been kicking myself since I left beautiful Bella sitting in that coffee shop without asking her for her phone number or contact information. I'd been planning on haunting that particular Starbucks in the hope that she would reappear. It had never occurred to me to hope I'd run into her anywhere else, but here she was on her hands and knees chasing down cans of tomato sauce.

The surprise I felt was like a physical blow and I sucked in my breath as I looked at her. She'd just been wearing a t-shirt the other day, which wasn't enough to tell a lot about her body. Sure, she was slender, but how much can you honestly tell from a loose-fitting shirt? Her tank top tonight was tight-fitting and clung to every exquisite curve she had. My hands ached to circle her waist and pull her close. Her hair fell over her shoulders and hid her face from view as she stood back up and placed the cans back on the shelf before hurrying off with her cart.

Barely pausing to question whether my next move was wise, I stuffed my grocery list back into my pocket and chased after her, not sure what I was going to say when I actually caught up.

I peeked around the corner of each aisle before hurrying on to the next one, finally finding her in the baking area. I felt foolish as I stood there, watching her, not sure how to approach without looking like a stalker. What else was I supposed to do, though? When life hands you such an excellent second opportunity to get a pretty girl's number, you don't let something like creepiness get in the way, do you? I shook my head at my logic as I watched her continue on down the line of shelves toward the checkout counters.

My footsteps echoed loudly as I hurried after her. I was going to regret it forever if I didn't this a shot, at least. Seeing her standing in line, I jumped behind her before someone else could. I shifted my weight from one foot to another as I waited for her to glance behind her. Should I just tap her on the shoulder? What if she didn't look behind her? I started humming softly, hoping it would get her attention. For some reason, it seemed way less creepy if she noticed me instead of me actually speaking first.

The humming did it. I watched her turn her head slowly and try to casually glance back. I watched her kind brown eyes go wide in shock as she recognized me. "Hi!" She said before clamping her mouth shut again. I couldn't help but smile. She had clearly surprised herself but I was glad that her speaking to me was an involuntary thing.

"Hello," I replied, glad to have the beginnings of a conversation. If I was going to ask her for her number, I probably had to talk to her first. "How are you tonight, Bella?" I hadn't said her name out loud since I met her. It was so wonderfully appropriate for this lovely woman in front of me.

"I'm… I'm well. How are you?" She was smiling but the deep brown of her eyes flattened a little bit and I knew she wasn't telling the truth. I wondered what was wrong but couldn't come up with a polite way to question her further.

"Doing very well. Have you had a good week?" That was really all I could think of in the way of appropriate questions without prying into her life.

"It's been a little rough in places but nothing I can't work with," she shrugged and her smile twitched slightly. Again, I knew she wasn't telling the whole story but I let it go. She barely knew me and it wasn't my right to keep asking. "What are you doing here?" She asked. I watched her glance around, looking for something.

I glanced around myself, realizing at the same time she did that my basket was no where in sight. Great. What _was_ I doing here, if not to buy groceries? I couldn't very well tell her that I abandoned my stuff to stalk after her.

"Oh. Well. I'm uh… here for gum," I said lamely, snatching some off of the shelf in front of me. I involuntarily made a face. Gum was the best I excuse I could come up with? Anything would have been better than that.

"Gum?" She asked disbelievingly. She had every right to _not_ believe me, since I'm being a total idiot right now…

I sighed, realizing it was too late to change my story now. "Gum," I said with as much confidence as I could muster. "I had a gum emergency, so here I am." A gum emergency? What is wrong with me?

"Oh, ok," she said, turning and giving her attention to the checkout guy.

I sagged in relief, glad she hadn't pressed the subject. She kept glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes and there was still a beautiful blush on her cheeks so I knew that I wasn't out of the game just yet. Maybe I can salvage this completely awkward encounter?

After she got her receipt, she paused and I saw her eyes dart from the door then back to me. She was trying to decide if she wanted to wait for me! That was a very good sign and my heart sped up just a little at the thought that she might find me as interesting and attractive as I found her. Screw Emmett and Jasper on their date tonight! I'd rather be standing here in the grocery store with Bella any day.

"Hey, wait for me Bella," I said, reaching out to touch her before I could help myself. Her soft skin felt wonderful under my finger tips and I turned my gaze from her before I lost myself, focusing on paying for my gum.

"Alright," she said softly. My heart rejoiced at the slight hint of relief that colored that word.


	10. Some 'Splaining to Do

**Bella's POV**

I wasn't one hundred percent sure what my plan was, exactly, but he'd asked me to wait and that was what I was going to do. I fidgeted while he paid and tried not to cross my arms over my chest. Why hadn't I thought to bring an extra change of clothes with me tonight? To any one else it would have seemed a little obsessive-compulsive to bring a spare outfit for a grocery store run, but at least I would have been covered tonight. Literally and physically. I smiled a small smile at my cheesy internal monologue.

Edward turned his attention to me as he shoved his gum in his pocket. "Do you have any other plans tonight? I mean, besides grocery shopping?" He casually maneuvered around me and began pushing my grocery cart toward the door.

I shrugged. Was I allowed to tell him I was free? Would Alice and Rose call it a rookie mistake? Neither one of them ever accepted dates or plans of any kind with a guy if he asked her at the last second. Then again, that rule only seemed to apply when a guy was calling them to ask them out on a formal date for that same night. Is this the same thing? Is this even a date? I think I'm over-thinking this.

"I've got other errands to run but that's about it," I said quietly, letting him read into it what he would. Not even sure whether I wanted him to ask me to do something, I waited for him to respond.

He looked over to me and gave me a crooked smile that had me grinning back at him in spite of myself. He had so much charisma, it was hard not to instantly like him even though I didn't know anything about him. "Want to run errands together? I've got a few things I need to get done too."

I hesitated. There was a difference between smiling at a guy I don't know and getting in a car with a guy I don't know. He could drive off with me and then I'd be one more news story about an idiot girl who wasn't thinking and willingly got into the serial killer's car. I'd really have to be a good judge of character and trust this guy in order to accept. My mouth went dry at the thought of the word _trust_. I'd learned better than that in college.

Edward seemed to understand a little bit of my train of thought because he continued on before I could answer his question. "Maybe that's not the best idea," he amended. "You don't know me. How about we do one of my errands in this general area and then get dessert?" He pointed to the ice cream shop on the other side of the parking lot.

"What other errands do you have to run?" I asked skeptically. The only places open at this time of the evening were a few restaurants, the ice cream place, and the grocery store.

"Promise you won't laugh?" He asked, chuckling to himself.

I raised an eyebrow. "It's hardly fair to have me promise that when you are already laughing."

"Fair point," he conceded. "I have to go grocery shopping."

"What do you mean?" I asked, unlocking my trunk and watching Edward load my grocery bags into it. "You were just in the grocery store. For _gum_," I added scathingly.

"Yeah, about that. I may or may not have seen you in the store and chased after you." His voice was sheepish as he admitted this. "I sort of left my basket sitting on the ground and didn't realize I didn't have it until I was already talking to you."

I laughed out loud as he deposited the last of my bags in the trunk and slammed the door. "What about your gum emergency?" I asked.

He helplessly spread his arms wide. "I panicked! And if I come home and try to feed my roommates gum for the next week, they may kick me out of the house."

My grin was wide as I did an about-face and pointed back toward the grocery store. "Well we better go in there and get you some food to take back. Homelessness is an inconvenience you don't want to have to worry about this week." As we were walking back into the store, I marveled at how natural it was to have a conversation with Edward and be myself around him. His contagious good mood sort of sucked me in before I had too much of an opportunity to be awkward and suspicious of his motives.

And he just said that he chased after me! That was a good sign, right? He wouldn't be doing that if he weren't interested in me. I glanced over at him slyly and ran my eyes over his strong-looking arms. He wasn't overly, obnoxiously muscular but he was extremely well-proportioned. Even Rose would have to agree that he was incredibly attractive. I wondered what he did for exercise. Maybe he was a swimmer? His broad shoulders could certainly handle that sort of work out.

"So here's the deal," he said matter-of-factly, pausing in front of the hand baskets. "Plan A is to get a new basket and pretend that I'm not a complete moron who just abandoned his groceries in the middle of the dairy section. Plan B is to go and pick up my first basket with as much dignity as I can muster and continue on my merry way and hope that everyone in this store is _not_ judging me. Thoughts?"

I deliberated for a moment. If he didn't go get the groceries he'd already gathered, some employee was going to have to put it all back. But if he started over, we got to spend more time together. "I say you start over," I said out loud with a smile.

"And you won't judge me that I'm creating unnecessary chores for the people who work here?" He asked, his hand reaching for a new basket.

"Nope," I replied, leading the way over to the produce section, scanning the apples even though I wasn't planning on buying anything this time around.

**Edward's POV**

"So, Bella. Tell me something about yourself," I said, trying to keep my voice as casual as possible.

I watched her blush slightly and focus on the tray of fruit in front of her as she thought for a moment. "Well," she hesitated, probably wondering how much she should share. "I'm an editor for Kline Publishing Group down town. I'm twenty-four. And I hate olives." She smiled a little as she said it.

I grinned. "Do you have roommates or anything?" I asked, hoping she wouldn't think I was being too nosy.

"Yes, I do," she smiled broadly as she spoke. "I have two of the craziest roommates you will ever meet. Their names are Alice and Rosalie and they are my very best friends on this earth."

"That's important," I said. "Everyone needs good friends to share their life with. My roommates are sort of the same way with me. We've been living together since college. I'm not sure if they keep me out of trouble so much as they get me _into _trouble, but life is never boring."

We shopped and chatted without any problems for the next forty-five minutes until I had everything on my list, plus a bar of dark chocolate which Bella insisted I get for myself. "I always get one every time I come to the grocery store," she explained as she put it into my basket. "At the end of a long day with a ton of errands, chocolate always seems to put the world right again."

"I think this evening is going to be perfectly right without the chocolate," I said before I could help myself. I looked down at her and smiled. We were so close. I could easily close that distance and kiss her. My eyes flicked down to her lips. They looked so soft and I longed to have the right to press my own against them.

She held my gaze for a moment more before dropping her eyes to her feet. "Do you have everything?" Her voice was shy.

I cleared my throat before pulling my list out of my pocket. Scanning down it, I realized we'd missed tortilla chips somewhere along the way. "Chips are all that is left. How did we get salsa but forget the chips?" I wondered out loud, hoping to diffuse the tension.

I saw her visibly relax. "You tell me, Mr. List Master." She raised an eyebrow and let a small laugh escape.

We strolled toward the checkout counters and paid before going to deposit the groceries in my passenger's seat. "Ok," I said excitedly. "Ice cream?"

"That sounds great," she replied enthusiastically. I laughed to myself. If there was one universal truth about women, it was that every last one of them seemed to like ice cream. I could even remember a girl back in high school who was lactose-intolerant but still never passed up the chance for a good ice cream cone. She'd said that she would rather suffer the consequences than live without.

We took our time walking across the parking lot. I wondered if it would be too much for me to reach over and grab her hand, but she was walking with her arms crossed over her chest. "Are you cold?" I asked off-handedly.

"No, actually I'm fine," she sounded a little surprised. "I'm almost always cold but I seem to be doing well tonight."

I frowned, hoping that she wasn't crossing her arms because she was afraid I'd try to hold her hand. Granted, that had been exactly my plan, but the last thing I wanted her to worry about was my doing something that would upset her or make her uncomfortable. I silently made a note to relax and let her set the pace for us this evening. If what she needed tonight was a friend, then that was what I could be.

We made it inside the ice cream shop and got in line behind a few other couples, trying to decide what we were getting. I watched as Bella hung over the vats of different flavors like a little kid. I smiled involuntarily as I tried to picture her as a little girl. I bet she was cute beyond words.

I already knew what I wanted, but waited for Bella to order first. She took forever to decide but once she'd made up her mind she ordered with confidence. Caramel chocolate with butterscotch pieces on top.

"I'll have the mint chocolate chip, and put the lady's on my tab, please," I said smoothly, inviting no protests from the beautiful girl standing next to me. I looked over at her and she blushed. "It's the least I could do," I teased. "You went grocery shopping twice tonight just so I wouldn't be lonely." She laughed and thanked me as she was handed her order.

**Bella's POV**

He paid for the ice cream. So that's a date, right? I watched him eat his mint chocolate chip, admiring how neat he was despite the fact that he was eating it on a cone. "So you got a cone instead of a cup," I observed out loud.

"Yep," he said with a chuckle. "I like edible containers."

The comment made me laugh despite my mouthful of butterscotch chips. "What do you mean?"

"You know, edible containers? Ice cream cones, taco shells, bread bowls for soup?" He took another bite. "I enjoy ordering a bread bowl of soup and then ending up with a plate when I'm done. I think it's funny for some reason." He shrugged, his eyes twinkling. They really _were_ the clearest shade of green I had ever seen with not a single spec of brown in them.

"I guess that makes sense," I smiled. "I don't do well with ice cream cones because I end up wearing just as much of it as I eat. I just can't keep up with all the drips."

"Since you took so long to decide what you wanted, I'm assuming you don't get the same thing every time?" He asked. I wondered whether it had annoyed him to have to wait on me but he seemed like he was just making conversation, so I ignored the thought.

"I used to be a creature of habit but now I pretty much get something different every single time."

"What did you always used to get?" He asked.

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped. "I used to always get a clown cone in a cup." The confusion on his face didn't surprise me in the least. "You know what I'm talking about! The cone was his pointy hat and the ice cream was his head? They were so fun!"

He laughed out loud, the sound ringing through the little shop. "I have no idea what you're talking about but I'm so glad those exist. That's awesome."

I smiled sheepishly. "They were really good and I always felt sorry for them sitting there in the cases unwanted."

"Wait," he said. "Are you anthropomorphizing ice cream cones?"

"Yes. And they weren't _just _ice cream cones. They were _clowns_."

"You're too funny," he laughed, finishing off the last of his cone. "Do you mind if I go wash my hands really quickly?"

"Not at all," I said, still giggling about our conversation. He got up and turned his back to me, walking back to the bathroom. I couldn't help but notice what a nice body he had as he moved fluidly across the room.

"_Bella_?" I heard my name echo in the shop and froze, already knowing who was going to be on the other end of that voice.

I cringed as I turned around, spotting Alice and Rosalie along with two guys strolling through the door behind them. My roommates were standing a few feet away, staring with shocked faces at my presence. I gritted my teeth and glanced back at the bathroom door, still closed. They were going to be way more shocked when they found out that I wasn't alone. Any chance they just stopped in and are about to leave before Edward came back?

"_What are you doing here?_" Alice squealed, bobbing over to me and pulling me out of my chair and into a hug. I had just seen her two hours ago but for all of her excitement it could have been two years ago.

"Just getting some ice cream," I said, stating the obvious. "What about you?" I surveyed their dates, both of whom were incredibly good looking. It wasn't hard to tell which guy belonged with which girl, either. Rose's taste definitely ran more along the lines of the giant muscles on the man with the close-cropped brown hair. And Alice was already dragging her date forward to meet me.

"Jasper, this is our roommate, Bella," she sqeaked, still bouncing up and down with joy. "Bella, this is my date, Jasper!"

I reached out for a handshake. "Nice to meet you Jasper," I said, throwing a glance at Rosalie as I did.

Hey eyes flicked down to my low-cut tank and back up. She lifted an eyebrow and smirked before motioning for her date to join them. "And this is Emmett."

"Glad to meet you," I mumbled, blushing. Rose was absolutely wondering about my outfit. It was exactly something she would approve of and completely out of character for me. Why didn't I bring a change of clothes, again?

"So, are you here alone?" asked Alice, noting that there was only one ice cream on the table. If only it were that simple.

I glanced back at the bathroom door just as it opened. "Not exactly," I ground out, not sure how I was going to explain myself. I looked back at my roommates who had followed my stare and were now both gaping at me.

"Bella, you got some 'splaining to do!" Alice said in her best Ricky Ricardo accent.


	11. Bella 'Splains It All

**Bella's POV**

I stared back at Edward, approaching the group in all his handsome, masculine glory. There was going to be no convincing way for me to sell this situation as two unattached strangers randomly meeting and deciding to have ice cream together. I knew Alice and Rose. I knew how they thought. I knew that, since Edward was good-looking _and _had paid for the ice cream, this was automatically a date in their books. Was there even any point in trying to explain myself? Wouldn't it be easier to cut to the chase?

Before I could say anything to my two speechless roommates, Rosalie's date Emmett broke the silence. "Edward! What the heck are you doing here?" He seemed just as shocked as anyone.

I gaped at the tall man standing next to Rose and looked at Edward, who was now beside me. "You know them?" I asked, stunned.

Edward's eyes sparkled. "Of course I do. Bella, I'd like you to meet my roommates, Jasper and Emmett."

"Yeah," I said incredulously. "I've already met them. Their dates are _my _roommates." I gestured to them as I spoke.

"And who's _your _date, Bella?" Alice asked bluntly, tapping her foot impatiently. It was clear that the niceties of this conversation were getting in the way of her question being answered promptly.

"Oh," I reddened immediately. "He's not my… I mean, we're just… That is to say…This is Edward," I sputtered out. Was he my date? I wasn't sure if I could explain at all. It had never been made clear _what_ exactly we were doing here and I didn't want to say we weren't on a date if Edward thought we were.

"Nice to meet you, Edward," Rose purred, raising another eyebrow. "I'm Rosalie."

Emmett grinned and pointed at Rose. "This is the girl I was telling you about, man!" He looked like he wanted to do a little victory dance right there in the shop. I couldn't help but giggle.

"And this is Alice," Jasper interjected, putting his hand on the small of her back. Alice's grin practically stretched off her face as she extended her hand in greeting.

"Pleased to meet you both," Edward replied, glancing at me as he did so. I blushed even deeper.

"So… what the heck are you doing here, man?" Emmett repeated his question from earlier, winking at me as he did so. Was he allowed to do that? I flicked my eyes at Rosalie but she was too busy staring up at her date like he had the power to get her a 50% discount on designer shoes for the rest of her life.

I felt Edward shift next to me. "Getting ice cream, of course. What are you doing here?"

Emmett rolled his eyes and Jasper chuckled next to him. "No, I mean, what's with the date? If we had known you wanted to get out tonight, we would have asked you to come to dinner with us."

I frowned at his flawed logic. "You do realize that if you had dragged Edward to dinner, _my _roommates probably would have dragged _me_ to dinner and we'd all be right back where we started, right?"

I watched Emmett frown. "Yeah, I guess that's true." He laughed a big, booming laugh and slapped Edward on the shoulder. "Well done, man. She's pretty!"

My face heated at his remark and I looked at my feet, wishing that everyone weren't staring at me. Somewhere deep inside I was flattered that he thought I was attractive, but the bluntness with which he blurted it out was embarrassing. Was there any way we could change the subject? I wasn't remotely clear on what Edward and I were up to and it was uncomfortable having this chance run-in be the predominant topic of conversation. I needed time to process all of it before trying to analyze it with Alice and Rose.

"Thank you," said Edward, amused. I glanced up at him and saw that he was staring down at me with a soft expression. Was he thanking Emmett for congratulating him? Was he agreeing that I was pretty? Was he affirming that we were on a date? Why couldn't I read people's minds? It would make everything so much easier.

"Hey!" Alice squeaked, bobbing up and down. I wondered detachedly if she was so thin because she put one hundred percent of her energy into everything she did, including this conversation. That had to burn a ton of calories. "Why don't we all go back to our place and hang out?"

The guys all exchanged quick, hopeful looks with one another. "That sounds awesome!" said Emmett, just as excited as Alice was.

"Great! You all follow us in Bella's car, ok?" Rose said, snatching my wrist as she said it. "She drives a black Forerunner."

"I know which car it is," interjected Edward. "Guys, follow me in Jasper's car."

Rose and Alice exchanged looks before dragging me outside and toward my car, one of the only ones left parked in front of the grocery store. I could almost hear the eight million questions that were buzzing in each of their heads as they hurried me across the parking lot. I dug my keys out of my pocket with the hand that wasn't imprisoned in Rose's death-grip and unlocked my car.

"What about your car?" I asked Alice, whose car was still parked in front of the Greek restaurant where they had eaten.

"Get it tomorrow," she replied automatically. "This is more important."

Once all three doors slammed, Alice and Rose squealed in unison, practically bursting my ear drums. I covered my ears, waiting for them to calm down. Alice was clapping and bouncing in her seat, burning more calories probably.

"Okay okay okay!" Rose shouted over Alice. "Bella, what in God's name is going on?" She was still excited but her voice was controlled as she addressed me.

I shrugged, going red again. "I don't… I'm not sure."

"Yeah, that explanation is _so_ not going to be enough," Rose said after a small pause. I had figured as much but thought I'd give it a shot anyway.

"Start from the beginning!" Alice screeched, causing both Rosalie and me to flinch.

"Alice, you have _got_ to calm down," I said in exasperation. I watched Edward pull his car around to where we were parked, closely followed by another white one that I assumed was Jasper's. I started my engine and made my way out of the parking lot with the guys in tow.

"Just start talking, Bella. We only have like six minutes to hear the whole story before we're home." Rose was getting impatient.

I took a deep breath. "Fine. But neither of you can interrupt me until I'm done," I qualified.

"Deal," said both Rose and Alice simultaneously.

Where did I start? I hadn't even had a chance to think through most of it myself and here I was trying to explain everything. "I guess the whole thing started the other day when I was in the coffee shop down the road doing some editing. I looked up from my manuscript and Edward was sitting across the room just… staring. Not in a creepy way or anything," I added. I went on to explain all that had transpired since that time until tonight. There was silence in the car as we drove.

"He paid for the ice cream tonight, then?" Rose asked with a grin.

I nodded. "He didn't really give me a chance to argue with him."

"Yeah that was a date then," she said excitedly. "I mean, granted, it was an impromptu date, but still... a date's a date!"

"And what's with your outfit tonight, Bells?" Alice interjected, her voice dripping in awe. "It looks like something we would have picked out _for_ you but never ever something you'd wear on your own."

"I know, right?" Rosalie exclaimed. "Our baby's all grown up and picking out sexy outfits on her own!"

I shrugged, turning onto our street. "I caught my jacket in the car door and it ripped." They both stared nonplussed for a second before Rosalie groaned.

"So… do you like him, Bella?" Alice asked carefully. I frowned at the serious edge her voice had taken but decided to ignore it.

"I honestly don't know," I said slowly, steering into the driveway. "He's attractive and seems really nice but I still don't really know him at all."

"That's understandable," said Rose, using the same, carefully measured tone that Alice had. "But the only way you _will _get to know him is by spending time with him."

"I think it's worth a shot if you're willing to give it a chance," Alice said reasonably. She poked me in the side and giggled, turning the conversation in a lighter direction again. "But if you don't kiss him at some point, I may just have to!"

"What about Jasper?" I asked with a laugh, trying to swat her hand away at the same time.

"Oh, he won't mind," Alice said confidently. We all got out of the car and looked back at the guys who were all still sitting in their cars staring at us.

**Emmett's POV**

Is this a joke? How were we living in the same neighborhood with these girls without knowing it? I studied the house for a second and realized that I recognized it. I glanced at their next door neighbor's house just to double check. Surely not…

"This _is_ the same house, if that's what you're wondering," Jasper said out loud, confirming what I already knew.

"How is that even possible?" I asked incredulously.

"You also realize, then, that it was Rosalie that yelled at us from that window up there, right?" Jasper asked, pointing to the second-story window directly above the front door.

I paused, thinking it out without really needing to. I knew that what he was saying was accurate. "How is that even possible?" I asked again, still not believing how incredibly lucky I was to be living directly behind Rosalie. To hell with the fact that she had yelled at me! My bedroom was literally like 100 feet from hers!

The back door opened and Edward jumped inside before we could even react. "Okay, men, what are we going to do about this?" He asked conspiratorially.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not catching on.

"This is the house directly behind ours!" He looked back and forth at our blank expressions. "Oh, come on, gents! This is too good for us not to do something _useful_ with it!" He was whispering even though it wasn't necessary.

I glanced out my windshield and saw the girls all standing in the driveway watching us. Rosalie was so unbelievably gorgeous it was hard for me to stay sitting in the car when I could have my arms around her. But Edward was almost never the instigator of a practical joke and I was interested in seeing what he had in mind. "What are you thinking, Edward?"

He shrugged. "We can't hammer out the details right now. Just pretend we don't live in this neighborhood," he replied quickly.

"Wait!" Jasper grabbed his arm before he could get out of the car. "We want details on what you were doing tonight with Bella!"

"No time now, Jaz," I said, fixing my eyes on Rosalie. She was hott even when she was tapping her foot impatiently. I chuckled, getting out of the car.


End file.
